Knowledge Base
Configuring CIB Results in Invalid Argument When Virtual Machine Is Powered On
Details
- When attempting to configure Cluster-in-a-Box (CIB), after setting the SCSI Controller Bus Sharing option to either Virtual or Physical, the virtual machine fails to start.
- You see the error:
Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/<UUID>/my.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
Reason: Invalid argument.
Solution
This issue occurs because you cannot use a lazy-zeroed virtual disk (.vmdk file) when you run CIB. The disk must be configured in the eagerzeroedthick format. When you allocate disk space, the file system zeroes out all the space for you. In the case of a lazy-zeroed virtual disk, the ESX file system (VMFS3) zeroes the space only as it is used.
To resolve this issue, try one of these options:
- Convert the existing VMDK to eagerzeroedthick. For more information, see
Enabling clustering features for an existing virtual disk by converting in place (1035823).
- Recreate the VMDK disk and specify the disk format as eagerzeroedthick.
To create a new VMDK disk with format eagerzeroedthick run the command:
# vmkfstools -c <size> -d eagerzeroedthick <vmfspath>
For more information, see the ESX Basic System Administration guide.
For more information on disk formats and using vmkfstools, see Cloning and converting virtual machine disks with vmkfstools (1028042)
Cloning and converting virtual machine disks with vmkfstools (1028042)To known the current disk format for a virtual machine disk (VMDK), see Determining if a VMDK is zeroedthick or eagerzeroedthick (1011170).
Determining if a VMDK is zeroedthick or eagerzeroedthick (1011170).Keywords
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