VM Disk Consolidation Fails with "No Connection" on NFS Datastore (vCloud Director Managed)

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms :

VMware vSphere reports "Consolidation Required" for a Virtual Machine, but the Snapshot Manager in vCenter is empty.

Log in to the ESXi Host UI or vCenter Web Client Right-click on the virtual machine and select Snapshots > Snapshot Manager/Manage Snapshots.
Storage: Impacted VM resides on an NFS Datastore.
Attempts to consolidate VM manually fail at approximately 28% completion.

An error occurred while consolidating disks: The operation failed. Consolidation failed for disk node 'scsi0:1': The operation failed. Failed to get copy progress while consolidating disks from '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk' to '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk'. Failed to copy source (/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk) to destination (/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk): No connection.

Impacted VM is managed by VMware Cloud Director.
vmware.log of VM indicates the snapshot consolidation task failed at 28% :

vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:34.737Z In(05) vmx - SnapshotESXCombineProgressTotal: Snapshot consolidation progress: 28
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:35.739Z In(05) vmx - SnapshotESXCombineProgressTotal: Snapshot consolidation progress: 28
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:36.739Z In(05) vmx - SnapshotESXCombineProgressTotal: Snapshot consolidation progress: 28
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:37.740Z In(05) vmx - SnapshotESXCombineProgressTotal: Snapshot consolidation progress: 28
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:38.840Z In(05) vmx - SnapshotESXCombineProgressTotal: Snapshot consolidation progress: 28
vmware.log:2025-12-20T04:06:39.841Z Wa(03) vmx - Mirror: scsi0:1: Failed to copy disk: No connection
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:39.841Z Wa(03) vmx - MirrorDiskCopyGetCopyProgress: Failed to get disk copy progress for source disk: '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk' and destination disk: '/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk'
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:39.841Z In(05) vmx - ConsolidateDiskCopyCB: Mirror Disk copy failed on src disk: /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk and destination disk: /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1/Test1-2_1-000004.vmdk.
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:39.843Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Destroying virtual dev for scsi0:0 vscsi=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:39.843Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VMMon_VSCSIStopVports: No such target on adapter
vmware.log-2025-12-20T04:06:39.843Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Destroying virtual dev for scsi0:1 vscsi=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The Ping test to NFS Server indicates there is no connectivity issue between NFS server and ESXi host is working fine.

nc -z <NFS_Server_IP> 2049 and # vmkping -I vmkN -s nnnn ###.##.##.## works fine.

Refer KB # 323107 : Troubleshooting NFS datastore connectivity issues

Environment

vCenter 8.x
vCenter 9.x
ESXi 8.x
ESX 9.x
vCloud Director (vCD): 10.x

Cause

This issue is caused by a synchronization failure between the management layer (vCD/vCenter) and the physical storage layer.

VMX Verification: A check of the configuration file confirmed the VM was actively writing to a snapshot redo log:

[root@Test4:/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx/Test1] cat Test1.vmx | grep -i vmdk
scsi0:4.fileName = "Test1_4.vmdk"
scsi0:0.fileName = "Test1.vmdk"
scsi0:2.fileName = "Test1_2.vmdk"
scsi0:3.fileName = "Test1_3.vmdk"
scsi0:1.fileName = "Test1_1-000004.vmdk"

Resolution

As per KB # 316575 : Sometimes, if the VMs show consolidation needed and no snapshots are present under the snapshot manager, creating a new snapshot and deleting it clears the entire hierarchy. This means that all snapshot files on the virtual machine are committed, then deleted.

Because the VM is managed by vCloud Director, the snapshot create and delete operation must be initiated from the vCD to maintain metadata integrity.

Steps followed to fix the snapshot consolidation issue :

1. Since the VM is managed by vCloud director. Connect to vCloud director and create a snapshot for VM .

On the Virtual Data Center dashboard screen, click the card of the virtual data center you want to explore and from the left panel, select Virtual Machines.
Click Card Icon to view the list in a card view and, optionally, arrange the list of virtual machines from the Sort by drop-down menu.
From the Actions menu of the virtual machine for which you want to take a snapshot, select Create Snapshot.

Refer : Take a Snapshot of a Virtual Machine in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

2. Then connect to vSphere UI and validate whether new snapshot is visible in the VM's snapshot manager console.

Log in to the ESXi Host UI or vCenter Web Client Right-click on the virtual machine and select Snapshots > Snapshot Manager/Manage Snapshots.

3. Then performed snapshot consolidation for VM Test1:

1. Navigate to a virtual machine in the vSphere Client inventory and click the Snapshots tab.
2. Perform the necessary snapshot operations.
3. If the virtual machine snapshot files must be consolidated, the Consolidation is required message appears.
4. Click the Consolidate button.
5. The Consolidate dialog box appears.
6. Click OK.

4. Then delete the snapshot for the VM Test1 from vCloud director.

1. On the Virtual Data Center dashboard screen, click the card of the virtual data center you want to explore and from the left panel, select Virtual Machines.
2. Click Card Icon to view the list in a card view and, optionally, arrange the list of virtual machines from the Sort by drop-down menu.
3. From the Actions menu of the virtual machine for which you want to remove the snapshot, select Remove Snapshot.
4. Click OK.

Refer :Remove a Snapshot of a Virtual Machine in the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal

5. Post above action the snapshot consolidation issue should be resolved.

Additional Information

Refer : Consolidating/Committing snapshots in VMware ESXi