Snapshot quiescing fails on Windows 11 virtual machines with the error "Cannot quiesce this virtual machine because the quiesce operation is not supported"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The virtual machine is a Windows 11
• The snapshot quiescing is triggered via API or script using the spec.vssBackupContext containing ctx_backup.
• The following error is observed in the virtual machine log file found in /vmfs/volunes/datastore/vm-name/vmware.log

  <timestamp> In(05) vmx ########-##-#### SNAPSHOT: SnapshotPrepareTakeDoneCB: Prepare phase complete (The operation completed successfully).
  <timestamp> In(05) vmx ########-##-#### Msg_Post: Warning
  <timestamp> In(05) vmx ########-##-#### [msg.snapshot.quiesce.notsupported] Cannot quiesce this virtual machine because the quiesce operation is not supported.
  <timestamp> In(05) vmx ########-##-#### ----------------------------------------
  <timestamp> In(05) vmx - SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot '__GX_BACKUP__': 0
  <timestamp> In(05) vmx - SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine (29).

• The following error is observed in the ESXi host log file found in /var/log/hostd.log:

  <timestamp> Hostd[2099288]: [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr] Event 20778 : Warning message on test on ESXi-FQDN in ha-datacenter: Cannot quiesce this virtual machine because the quiesce operation is not supported. 

Cause

The ctx_backup indicates application consistent quiescing, which is not supported when VM encryption is enabled for the virtual machine. As Windows 11 requires TPM for deployment, ctx_backup does not support Windows 11.

Resolution

Use file-system quiescing instead, which is ctx_file_share_backup.

Additional Information

VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 9.0