Reverting a virtual machine snapshot fails with error: "A required file was not found"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

An error occurs when reverting a snapshot.

When the error occurs while reverting a snapshot, the following log is recorded in /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log (vCenter Server log).

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS error vpxd[XXXXX] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=XXXXXXX] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-XXXXXXX -- XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXX -- snapshot-XXXXX -- vim.vm.Snapshot.revert: :vim.fault.InvalidSnapshotFormat
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.InvalidSnapshotFormat) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "msg.snapshot.vigor.revert.error",
-->          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->             (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                key = "1",
-->                value = "msg.snapshot.error-NOTFOUND"
-->             }
-->          ],
-->          message = "An error occurred while reverting to a snapshot: A required file was not found."
-->       }
-->    ]
-->    msg = "Detected an invalid snapshot configuration."
--> }

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the snapshot disk referenced by the target virtual machine does not exist. 

Resolution

The resolution is to place the snapshot disk in the target virtual machine directory or restore from a backup.