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"Unable to save snapshot file" Error Occurs When Taking a Snapshot (1000310)

Details

When taking a snapshot of a virtual machine, the error "A general system error occurred: Unable to save snapshot file" is encountered and the snapshot is not saved.

Solution

One possible reason that you might encounter this error is that you have attempted to take a snapshot and save it to a VMware VMFS partition that does not have enough free space to take the snapshot. The ESX Server software does not indicate that the cause of the snapshot failure is a lack of space. This is a known issue. To work around this issue, free space by deleting unused snapshots and unused virtual disks, or expand the volume by adding extents. The space available must be increased to a size large enough to accommodate the snapshot. With enough space available, the error will not occur and the snapshot will be taken normally.

For more detailed information about checking the VMware VMFS volume free Space, See Investigating disk space on an ESX host (1003564)

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