Note: It is reported that this issue occurs after installing a third-party backup agent inside the virtual machine without rebooting it. If this is the case, try a reboot of the virtual machine to determine if that resolves the issue before engaging in more advanced troubleshooting.
To resolve this issue, perform one of these options:
If you do not want to quiesce the virtual machine during snapshot creation, there are several options. Choose one of these options, based on your environment:
- If the snapshots are taken through the ESXi host using the
vim-cmd
command, set the option of quiescing to 0.
To get a list of virtual machines and their VMID, run the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
To set the quiescing to 0, run the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create vmid [snapshotName] [snapshotDescription] [includeMemory] [quiesced]
For example, if a virtual machine named testVM
has a VMID of 23
, the command is:
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create 23 "SnapName" "Snap Description" 0 0
- If the snapshots are taken through the ESXi host terminal using the
vmware-cmd
command, set the option of quiescing to 0.
Run this command to set quiescing to 0:
vmware-cmd cfg createsnapshot name description quiesce memory
For example:
vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/4adecc3a-62b367e8-5b15-001a4be960e0/VMname/VMname.vmx createsnapshot "Snap Name" "Snap Description" 0 0
- If you are using a third-party backup product that does not allow you to configure for non-quiescent snapshots, remove the VSS component from the Windows guest operating system, provided as part of VMware Tools. This results in VMware Tools attempting to use an older sync driver. When you request a quiescent snapshot, VMware Tools does not find and utilize the VSS driver and then attempts to quiesce using the sync driver. To reinstall VMware Tools without the VSS option:
- Uninstall VMware Tools (removing VMware Tools removes Vmware Tools features as well as the VMXNET driver, see Choosing a network adapter for your virtual machine).
- Allow the system to reboot.
- Reinstall VMware Tools. Ensure that you click Custom Install.
- Deselect VSS.
Notes:
- This requires a reboot of the virtual machine. VMware recommends scheduling downtime before performing this action.
- The option to deselect VSS and use the sync driver on Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Windows is no longer available. Any snapshot taken with the quiesce option uses VSS to quiesce the guest OS file system by default unless the Volume Shadow Copy service is disabled in the guest OS.
- After the installation, you are able to take a snapshot where the quiescing operation is not performed, even if specifically requested.
Notes:
- Microsoft does not support snapshots of Exchange servers. For more information on support for snapshots, see these Microsoft TechNet articles:
-
- When using the Symantec NetBackup tool with virtual machines running Microsoft Exchange, consider using the Symantec VSS provider. For more information, see the Veritas Netbackup for VMware Administrator's Guide. If VMware Tools was installed before the Symantec VSS, follow the NetBackup Admin Guide for information on uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Tools without the VMWare VSS. If you need to remove the Symantec VSS, contact Symantec for assistance with uninstalling/reinstalling the Symantec VSS service.
- The issue occurs if any of the VSS writers are failing. Verify the list of writers before running the backup job and after the job is finished, verify if any VSS writer is failing. As the VSS writers are provided by third-party vendors, engage the vendor for any issues with them or to troubleshoot any failures of those writers.