RESOLVED: cannot get machine from running off a snapshot disk 000001.vmdk
I detached all the eranous drives in acronis vmprotect 7 and I still cannot get one of my machines off of running on 000001.vmdk. I even created a snapshot and removeall snapshot following this guide from vmware: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cm…
scsi0:0.fileName still points to a -000001.vmdk file in the vmx file.
The virtual machine's vmsd file just contains this:
.encoding = "UTF-8"
snapshot.lastUID = "252"
I even tried this to create a snapshot:
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 736 test
Then this to remove all:
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.removeall 736
This worked fine for my virtual machine ID 1088, but for vm id 736 It keeps the -00001 files there.
For vm machine 1088 it pointed to the original disks but never removed -000002 delta and related snapshot vmdk files for it's 3 drives, but I was able to move them out to ../temp/ with no ill effects, and I will delete the files in a week.
running this command on my vmware esx 4.1 host:
find /vmfs/volumes/ -name "*delta*" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 du --human-readable --total
shows 7 delta vmdk files in the AcronisAppliance directory all starting with an underscore _datastorename__machinename-delta.vmdk for example.
Then it shows 2 servers (one mentioned above) running off of delta disk -000001.vmdk which appears impossible to get rid of. Then it shows 3 delta files from my virtual machine ID 1088 that are orphans that i moved to a temp folder for the time being.
So how do I get these machines off from running on a -000001.vmdk file?
Ok Impossible. vmware tech support could not get the snapshot to go away. So this is a problem on 2 of our vm's. One is only used for payroll stuff once every two weeks. So we were able to take it down since it is not a payroll week.
The machine has to be offline and then a clone needs to be made of the disk in the command line on the ESX host. The command and it's syntax is:
vmkfstools -v 3 -i source-000001.vmdk destination.vmdk
Once the clone is complete, you have to edit the virtual machine settings. Remove the hard disk. Then add a new hard disk but specify existing and browse to the new vmdk you created.
Now the machine can power on and its no longer using a 000001 disk or delta's. When your 100% confident the machine is running good, you can delete or move the 000001.vmdk and associated files to a temp directory.
They have no idea how Acronis got us into this situation.
We will have to schedule downtime after hours in the middle of the night for our other server because you have to shut it down to do the clone. :-(
Ok this Acronis vmProtect KB article: http://kb.acronis.com/content/32611 pretty much references our daily problems and how we resolve them.
This one machine would not get off of running from it's -000001.vmdk snapshot disk despite numerous create and delete snapshot operations. I was able to follow the VMWare KB article referenced towards the end of this Acronis KB document here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cm…
I downloaded the fixdeleteable.py script and SCP it to the directory where this problem virtual machine exists. I was able to run the script and once it completed I created a snapshot and then deleted it. Voila.... machine is now running on its normal flat disk file. Stubborn snapshots be gone!
The VMWare KB article mentions this is a bug in VMWare VDR 1.0 but it is fixed in 1.0.1. I would encourage Acronis developers to fix vmProtect 7 the same way VMWare was able to fix VDR in 1.0.1.
KJSTech,
When you ran the fixdeletetable.py script, did you have the VM down or up and running? I need to make sure that the current state of my VM is the one that ends up being functional. I.E. for some VMs, there is the regular server.vmdk, then a 000001.vmdk and a 000002.vmdk. I really want to emulate a "Delete All" for the snapshots, rather than a revert.
Thanks!
My VM's were running when I ran that script. Though usual VMWare fanfare, when the snapshot consolidation gets to 95%, it hangs there for a few minutes and in one instance a SQL server was not responding in a timely fashion so a website went down for 5 to 10 minutes.
I ended up with 2 more jobs stuck at 5% today, but at least this time when I powered off the Acronis appliance, the snapshot disks auto detached and consolidated. I just have to figure out how to remove the Acronis vmProtect Backup "In Progress" listings in vSphere client.
That issue here: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38624