This article provides steps to enable and disable Windows 2008 and 2012 virtual machine application-consistent quiescing.

Symptoms:

• You may receive error code 5 and see errors similar to:
  
  'VssSyncStart' operation failed: Operation aborted (0x80004004) warning"
2012-08-23T16:33:20.647Z [FFA18B90 verbose 'PropertyProvider' opID=CA0E7426-00005219-58] RecordOp ASSIGN: info.error, task-142530
2012-08-23T16:33:20.648Z [FFA18B90 info 'Default' opID=CA0E7426-00005219-58] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-142530 -- -- vpxapi.VpxaService.createSnapshot -- 5229b79e-ce92-3d72-81e9-c22f5ec4923d
2012-08-23T16:33:20.648Z [FFA18B90 info 'Default' opID=CA0E7426-00005219-58] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-142530 -- -- vpxapi.VpxaService.createSnapshot: vim.fault.ApplicationQuiesceFault:
   
• You may receive error code 3 when the guest operating system reports an error during quiescing, and in the vmware.log: file, you see entries similar to:
   
  • Error when notifying the sync provider
  • Quiesce operation aborted
  • [msg.snapshot.quiesce.vmerr] The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware Data Recovery 2.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware Data Recovery 1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x

In Windows 2008 or later versions, application-level quiescing is performed using a hardware snapshot provider.

After quiescing the virtual machine, the hardware snapshot provider creates two .REDO logs per virtual machine disk, one for the live (ongoing or upcoming) virtual machine writes, and another for the VSS and Writers in the guest operating system to modify the disks after the snapshot operation is complete.

The snapshot configuration information of the virtual machine reports this second .REDO log as part of the snapshot. This .REDO log represents the quiesced state of all the applications in the guest.

Note: This .REDO log must be opened using VDDK 1.2 to back it up. VDDK 1.1 fails to open this second .REDO log for backup.

Application-consistent quiescing of Windows 2008 and later virtual machines is available when those virtual machines are created in vSphere 4.1, 5.x and 6.0.x. Virtual machines created in vSphere 4.0 can be updated to enable application-consistent quiescing by modifying a virtual machine’s EnableUUID attribute.

To enable Windows 2008 and later virtual machine application-consistent quiescing:

1. Open the VMware vSphere Client, and log in to vCenter Server.
2. Select Virtual Machines and Templates and click the Virtual Machines tab.
3. Locate the Windows 2008 or later virtual machine for which you are enabling the disk UUID attribute, and power off the virtual machine.
4. After power-off, right-click the virtual machine, and choose Edit Settings.
5. Click the Options tab, and select the General entry in the settings column (under the Advanced entry).
6. Click Configuration Parameters.
7. Click Add Row.
8. In the Name column, type disk.EnableUUID.
9. In the Value column, type TRUE.
10. Click OK and click Save.
11. Power on the virtual machine.

Note: To disable application-consistent quiescing, use these steps until step 8, and in step 9 enter FALSE instead of TRUE. Use the remaining steps afterward:

You can disable application quiescing without virtual machine downtime by making a configuration change within VMware tools:

1. Open a text editor with administrator privileges. Right-click on the text editor and select Run as Administrator
2. Open C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Tools\Tools.conf file using a text editor. If the file does not exist, create it.
3. Add these lines to the file:
   
   [vmbackup]
   vss.disableAppQuiescing = true
    
4. Save and close the Tools.conf file.
5. Restart the VMware Tools Service for the changes to take effect:
   Restarting of the VMware Tools Service does not reliably stop the vmtoolsd.exe process. Therefore, follow these steps to restart:
   1. Click Start > Run, type services.msc, and click OK.
   2. Right-click the VMware Tools Service and click Stop.
   3. Open Task Manager by doingPress ctrl-shift-esc to open the Task Manager.
   4. In the Processes tab, search for vmtoolsd.exe file still exists
   5. Right-click on vmtoolsd.exe and stop the process.
   6. Return to the services window. Right-click the VMware Tools Service and click Start. Ensure that the vmtoolsd.exe service has restarted in the Processes tab.
      
      Note: In some versions of VMware Tools, this service is named as VMware Tools Service(VMTools).

For more information, see Incremental Restore of Backup Data in Designing Backup Solutions for VMware vSphere.

• For related troubleshooting information, see Cannot take a quiesced snapshot of Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine (1031298).
• For more information about VSS, see the Microsoft TechNet article How Volume Shadow Copy Service Works.
• For more information about the Security Support Provider Interface, see the Microsoft TechNet article The Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI).
• For more information regarding quiecing virtual machines in Windows 2012, see the Windows Backup Implementations section in the vSphere API/SDK Documentation Guide.
  
  Note: The preceding link was correct as of June 24, 2016. If you find the link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

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