Create virtual machine snapshot or Veeam backups fails with error " File was not found An error occurred while taking a snapshot"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

•  Create a virtual machine snapshot or Veeam backups fails with the following error.
  
  File was not found An error occurred while taking a snapshot: The system cannot find the file specified. An error occurred while saving the snapshot: The system cannot find the file specified.

 

•  Migrating between ESXi hosts is failing and the virtual machine vmware.log will be showing timeout events. See KB  VMotion fails for Virtual Machine protected by Veeam CDP
  

  2025-11-18T11:14:18.870Z In(05) vcpu-0 - MigrateSetState: Transitioning from state MIGRATE_TO_VMX_PRECOPY (3) to MIGRATE_TO_VMX_CHECKPT (4).
2025-11-18T11:14:18.870Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Migrate: Preparing to suspend.
2025-11-18T11:14:18.870Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Migrate: VM starting stun, waiting 100 seconds for go/no-go message.
……
2025-11-18T11:14:18.885Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Closing disk 'scsi0:2'
2025-11-18T11:14:18.886Z In(05) vcpu-0 - DISKLIB-CBT   : Shutting down change tracking for untracked fid 2913320.
2025-11-18T11:14:18.887Z In(05) vcpu-0 - DISKLIB-CBT   : Successfully disconnected CBT node.

   

  2025-11-18T11:13:15.783Z In(05) vmx - MigrateSetState: Transitioning from state MIGRATE_FROM_VMX_WAITING (9) to MIGRATE_FROM_VMX_PRECOPY (10).
2025-11-18T11:13:15.784Z In(05) worker-3744960 - MigrateBusMemPrealloc: BusMem preallocation begins.
2025-11-18T11:13:15.793Z In(05) worker-3744960 - MigrateBusMemPrealloc: BusMem preallocation completes.
2025-11-18T11:16:18.883Z In(05) vmx - MigrateWaitForData: Waited for 183.12 seconds.
2025-11-18T11:16:18.883Z Wa(03) vmx - Migrate: timed out waiting for data from the source.

   

• The virtual machine vmware.log will show events regarding faling to find Veeam sidecar file called  veecdp_1,###########-####-################.vmfd
  
  
  2025-10-21T04:24:51.481Z In(05) vcpu-0 1ed3db1e-69-f066 PluginLdr_Load: Loaded plugin 'libvmiof-disk-veecdp.so' from '/usr/lib64/vmware/plugin/libvmiof-disk-veecdp.so'
2025-10-21T04:24:51.483Z In(05) vcpu-0 1ed3db1e-69-f066 OBJLIB-FILEBE : FileBEOpen: can't open '/vmfs/volumes/677d31ae-#######-####-0######/virtualMachine-name/virtualMachine-name_1-203721c670f7ab7e.vmfd' : Could not
 find the file (393218).
2025-10-21T04:24:51.483Z In(05) vcpu-0 1ed3db1e-69-f066 SidecarOpenInt: Failed to open sidecar file '/vmfs/volumes/677d31ae-d085be31-cbc9-00620b11da00/virtualMachine-name-0Qi5/virtualMachine-name_1-203721c670f7ab7e.vmfd' with flags 2013, Could not find the file (60002).
2025-10-21T04:24:51.483Z In(05) vcpu-0 1ed3db1e-69-f066 DISKLIB-LIB_SIDECAR : DiskLibSidecarOpenInt: Failed to open side car for filter 'veecdp_1': Could not find the file.
2025-10-21T04:24:51.483Z In(05) vcpu-0 1ed3db1e-69-f066 FiltLib: veecdp: Opening sidecar failed: "The system cannot find the file specified" (25)
  
  
  
• The vmdk fils for the virtualMachine will contains entries for the missing a vmfd files that can not be found
  
  ddb.iofilters = "veecdp"
  ddb.longContentID = "9184############################170"
  ddb.sidecars = "veecdp_#################-############.vmfd"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESX 8.x 

Cause

 

• The virtualMachines are protected by Veeam CDP and we can see the VMDKs for the VMs contain the following values
  
  ddb.iofilters = "veecdp"
ddb.longContentID = "#############################"
ddb.sidecars = "veecdp_1,###########-####-################.vmfd"
  
  
• The snapshot and Veeam backups are faling due to the Veeam sidecar files called  veecdp_1,###########-####-################.vmfd  are missing from the virtualMachine folders, while the virtualMachine vmdks still showing  entries for them.
  
  
• This normally occurred if the Veeam backup failed and the the veecdp_1,###########-####-################.vmfd were removed before updating the vmdks.

Resolution

• Contact Veeam support to investigate why the Veeam sidecar files   veecdp_1,###########-####-################.vmfd are missing from the  virtualMachines folder and to investigate why the backup are failing