Troubleshooting
Problem
There are over 100 VMware® KB's that have these words: "Virtual Machine" and Snapshots in the title and apply to VMware ESX. This is a selection of 34 that have divided up into 4 separate categories. The sheer number KBs shows that virtual machine snapshots can be a complex subject, so it is worth understanding how Virtual Machine snapshots work, their limitations and potential problems.
Resolving The Problem
Information on Understanding Virtual Machine Snapshots and how they work:
Problem creating a Virtual Machine Snapshots :
Problems triggered by Virtual Machine snapshots:
Problems committing/deleting snapshots :
- Understanding virtual machine snapshots in VMware ESX (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015180)
- Identifying whether an ESX host virtual machine has snapshots (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004343)
- Best practices for virtual machine snapshots in the VMware environment (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279)
- Working with snapshots (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009402)
Problem creating a Virtual Machine Snapshots :
- Unable to take a quiesced VMware snapshot of a virtual machine (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009073)
- Unable to create snapshot: Operation failed because file already exists (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008058)
- Creating a virtual machine snapshot fails with the error: The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state(Powered Off)(http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1000959)
- Creating snapshots in a different location than default virtual machine directory (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002929)
- Taking a Snapshot of a Virtual Machine with Independent, Non-Persistent Disks Fails (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001556)
- Taking a snapshot fails with the error: Failed to take a memory snapshot, since the virtual machine is configured with independent disks (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007532)
- Virtual machine powers off and cannot restart after trying to take a snapshot (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006410)
- Creating a snapshot for a virtual machine fails with the error: File is larger than maximum file size supported (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012384)
- Unable to use Snapshots or perform a backup on virtual machines configured with bus-sharing (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006392)
Problems triggered by Virtual Machine snapshots:
- Taking a snapshot with virtual machine memory stuns the virtual machine while the memory is written to disk (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013163)
- Cold Migration From ESX Server 3.0.x Host to ESX Server 3.5.x Host Fails for Virtual Machines with Memory Snapshot (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004418)
- A virtual machine cannot boot after extending a base virtual disk that is part of a snapshot hierarchy (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1646892)
- After cold migration on ESX Server, virtual disk with snapshot has the wrong CID (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005228)
- Snapshot Engine inadvertently deletes independent persistent disks in some cases (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013929)
- Virtual Machine Changes to Snapshot-Consolidate Mode During Delete-All-Snapshot Operation (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2222)
- Revert to snapshot causes virtual machine to be suspended (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002394)
- Snapshot Operations Submitted Directly to an ESX Server Host During Storage VMotion Corrupt Virtual Machine Data (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003114)
- A virtual machine can freeze under load when you take quiesced snapshots or use custom quiescing scripts (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/5962168)
- Deleting snapshots of virtual machines with heavy disk I/O might cause host to be disconnected from VirtualCenter (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003024)
- Snapshot removal can stop a virtual machine for long time (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002836)
- No more space for the redo log error when attempting to start a virtual machine (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002103)
- Determining if there are leftover delta files that VMware Infrastructure Client cannot detect (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005049)
Problems committing/deleting snapshots :
- Committing snapshots from within the Service Console (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006847)
- Consolidating snapshots (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007849)
- Committing snapshots when there are no snapshot entries in the snapshot manager (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002310)
- Committing snapshots generates a content ID mismatch error (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007969)
- Troubleshooting issues when creating or committing snapshots in VMware ESXi/ESX (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1038963)
- Deleting snapshots from vCenter (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009666)
- vCenter operation times out with the error: Operation failed since another task is in progress (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004790)
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Document Information
Modified date:
27 February 2020
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