Snapshots not deleted after VM backup

Troubleshooting

Problem

VMware snapshots are not deleted after a VM backup occurs, ANS2718W is seen when the next backup runs

Cause

Snapshot consolidation is failing due to a VMware timeout.

Diagnosing The Problem

An ANS2718W message may be observed in the client error log:

ANS2718W The virtual machine 'TESTVM1234WV' requires snapshot consolidation

The ANS2718W message indicates that snapshot consolidation may be failing.
TSM does not perform the snapshot consolidation, this is strictly a VMware function.

The hostd.log and vmware.log should be reviewed for the following errors:

hostd.log:

2015-12-03T11:25:42.782Z [363C2B70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/55846daf-992a61d8-e034-3440b5c5c2e0/TESTVM1234WV/TESTVM1234WV.vmx'] Consolidate Disks failed: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault
2015-12-03T11:25:42.782Z [363C2B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/55846daf-992a61d8-e034-3440b5c5c2e0/TESTVM1234WV/TESTVM1234WV.vmx'] Consolidate Disks message: The virtual machine has exceeded the maximum downtime of 12 seconds for disk consolidation.
--> Synchronous consolidate failed for scsi0:1: Operation was canceled.
--> An error occurred while consolidating disks: The operation failed.
2015-12-03T11:25:42.782Z [35081B70 info 'Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr'] Event 9132 : Virtual machine TESTVM1234WV disks consolidation failed on LGS2ESX1201XVP.ampf.com in cluster LGS2ESX1201XVP.ampf.com in ha-datacenter.

vmware log:

2015-12-03T11:25:22.680Z| vcpu-0| I120: SNAPSHOT: SnapshotCombineDisks: Consolidating from '/vmfs/volumes/55846daf-992a61d8-e034-3440b5c5c2e0/TESTVM1234WV/TESTVM1234WV_1-000004.vmdk' to '/vmfs/volumes/55846daf-992a61d8-e034-3440b5c5c2e0/TESTVM1234WV/TESTVM1234WV_1.vmdk'.
2015-12-03T11:25:22.681Z| vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/55846daf-992a61d8-e034-3440b5c5c2e0/TESTVM1234WV/TESTVM1234WV_1-flat.vmdk" : open successful (24) size = 139586437120, hd = 261200877. Type 3
...
2015-12-03T11:25:42.739Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXConsolidateHelperProgress: Stunned for 20 secs (max = 12 secs). Aborting consolidate.
...
2015-12-03T11:25:42.749Z| vcpu-0| I120: SNAPSHOT: Snapshot_ConsolidateWorkItem failed: Operation was canceled (5)
2015-12-03T11:25:42.749Z| vcpu-0| I120: SnapshotVMXConsolidateOnlineCB: Synchronous consolidate failed for disk node: scsi0:1. Adding it to skip list.

The key elements are the messages regarding exceeding 12 seconds.

Resolving The Problem

The consolidation problem is completely external to Tivoli Storage Manager and is a VMware issue. The following VMware document discusses the root cause of the problem and how to resolve it.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2082886

The recommendation is to implement the fix in the document, if this does not resolve the consolidation failure, VMware support should be engaged to investigate the problem.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSGSG7","label":"Tivoli Storage Manager"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Component":"Client","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"All Supported Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}}]

Product Synonym

TSM

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Document Information

Modified date:
17 June 2018

UID

swg21972789

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