HELP ME PLEASE failed resume vm and crash vmware workstation 7

[twisterice]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in deep problem with a vm that does not works no more...i'm disparate because i cannot go to a previous snapshot.

i've a dell t1500 machine with core i870, 16gb ram, nvidia quadro fx 512mb, 500gb hd, windows 7 pro 64bit.

In this machine is installed wmware workstation 7 (last release) with autoprotect function up to 10 snapshot per day.

About 40 days ago, i've converted two computers into vm...one with vista 32bit and one with xp 32bit.

For all the recent month, everything works fine...but yesterday all the vm was crashed because the space in my hd was full...so from the snapshot manager i've deleted some old snapshot.

During deleting some snapshots, sometimes it show me that it cannot delete because the disk is still busy..but but the icon in the timeline of the snapshot manager has gone...going to the folder where i've saved the vm files, has been deleted also in the windows basket.

After deleted, i try to power on again the vm of vista 32bit......aaaaahhhhhh, it doesn't start!! and it stay on suspend mode....why?!?!?...if i try to resume it, all wmware workstation crash and i can only see a windows error message that vmware workstation has stopped to work.

Then i try to run the vm with xp 32bit and it run without any problem.

So i open again snapshot manager and i try to use the function "go to..." to recover a previous snapshot....ahhhhhh!!! nothing to do! it crash again!!!

so i've tried also to delete some files as specified in this kb...but no way, it crash again!

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003846

HELP ME, PLEASE!!!!!....i've all my projects in this machine is very important...if i lose them...:smileycry::smileycry::smileycry:

[a_p_]

I assume you did not backup the VM to e.g. an external disk!?

Please provide the following:

• the vmx file
  
• the vmsd file
  
• all vmware*.log files
  
• a list of files in the VM's folder (dir *.* /oen)
  

Please zip the files and attach them to your next post.

André

[twisterice]

i've make backup using autoprotect:smileysad: in a local folder (i've all the snapshots, specially the last two).....however, i've sent you all my logs...thanks for all your support.

Attachment(s)

sw2.zip   279 KB 1 version

[a_p_]

Wow, 42 snapshots, that's kind of a record here :smileywink:

It looks like there is an lck file or folder which has not been removed and now causes issues. Please delete all files and folders with an lck extension in the VM's directory. Make sure you have a current backup of all the files before doing anything.

If you have enough free disk space, I'd recommend you either create a clone of this VM to consolidate the snapshots or you at least delete all the snapshots you don't need anymore.

André

[twisterice]

so, there is a way to make a recovery of the whole machine without lose my vm?

what do you suggesting for?

however lck files and folder has already been deleted...also vmem (even if i've still a copy on desktop)

there's a way to make a new vm and import or copy the old last one snapshot and run again in normal mode?

[a_p_]

From how I understand your issue, I would try to clone the virtual disk and attach the cloned disk to a new VM. However, you will have to make sure there's enough free disk space to clone the disk. To clone it you need to find out the name of the latest snapshot vmdk file. This is the one in the vmx file, ide0:0.fileName = "sw2-000044.vmdk" in the vmx file you posted. Once you know the name, open a command line and create a clone using

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r C:\<path-to-th-vm>\sw2-000044.vmdk -t 0 C:\<target-folder>\sw2clone.vmdk

The command vmware-vdiskmanager.exe can be found in VMware Workstation's installation directory.

André

[twisterice]

i've tried to clone but i receive the following error

the original .vmdk is in c:\vm\sw2...then i've created a new folder called sw2clone under c:\vm\....why it doesn't works?

Creating disk 'C:\vm\sw2clone\sw2clone.vmdk'
Failed to convert disk: The parent virtual disk has been modified since the chil
d was created (0x1200003e88).

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r C:\v
m\sw2\sw2-000044.vmdk -t 0 C:\vm\sw2clone\sw2clone.vmdk

[a_p_]

This error indicated that the snapshot chain is broken. I assume you replaced the latest snapshots with backed up files, although the VM was started with an earlier snapshot. What you need to do is to fix the descriptor with the broken CID/parentCID. Please take a look at continuum's web site for a description on how to do this. If you are unsure, just do the export of the descriptors and post the results.

http://sanbarrow.com/sickbay-lesson-fix-cid-chain-embedded.html

André

[a_p_]

... the dsfok tools (dsfi.exe/dsfo.exe) can be found at http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-tools.html

André

[twisterice]

Hi Andrè,

i'm afraid of making mistakes, so could you help me through a remote session (for example, teamviewer or other system) to solve my problem and get my virtual machine? we can schedule for today in the afternoon?
i can pay you via paypal € 100 ...no more because unfortunately this is my max budget.

[a_p_]

Don't worry there's almost nothing that can go wrong if you backed up the files. If necessary we can do "free" remote session.

What I would like you to do, to see what's wrong is:

• download and extract the dsfok tools
• copy dsfo.exe to the VM's folder
• open a command line
• run cd /d C:\vm\sw2
• run md C:\temp\vmware
• run for %i in (*.vmdk) do dsfo.exe "%i" 512 800 "c:\temp\vmware\%~ni.txt"
• zip the txt files created in c:\temp\vmware and attach tehm to your next post

André

[twisterice]

ok i've attached the zip files

Attachment(s)

sw2.zip   15 KB 1 version

[a_p_]

Some weird things are going on here. In the latest vmware.log everything looked ok, but from the files you sent me there are some files which don't seem to be correct.

• sw2-000010.vmdk seems to be corrupt or overwritten, what is the size of it and do you have a backup? Currently sw2-000010.vmdk as well as sw2-000042.vmdk point to the same parent sw2-000039.vmdk
• sw2-000006.vmdk and sw2-000008.vmdk point to the same parent sw2-000007.vmdk. From the log files it looks like sw2-000008.vmdk is obsolete. However I would need the correct sw2-000010.vmdk to be sure.
• sw2-000043.vmdk and sw2-000044.vmdk seem to be empty/unused snapshots!

Do you have an older backup of sw2-000010.vmdk? If so, please run dsfo.exe "sw2-000010.vmdk" 512 800 "sw2-000010.txt" and attach the txt file. If not we had to clone the virtual disk without that part, which could result in some data corruption, depending on the changes which were made while this snapshot was active.

Please run dir *.* /one>allfiles.txt in the VM's folder and attach this txt file too, so I can see the last modified date/time of the files.

André

[twisterice]

During the first time when i've configured this vm, i've used splitted files and not single file...all configured with autoprotect....now i've understand that it was an error...because my hard disk is full....infact now i've the same problem in another dell machine that have 2 vm...vmware show me a message that there is no space available and so in this case please drive me to delete the old in order to don't follow the same error of sw2 on the first machine.

But for urgent order, let's fix the sw2 issue...well, i've made two screenshots that you can see in attach. There are a list of all files inside the sw2 folder....basically i need to recover the snapshot of 25 march or at the max the snapshot of 24 march late evening.

The best should be recover the snapshot sw2-000044.vmdk but i would be happy to recover the snapshot sw2-000042.vmdk...if it's not possible, jump to sw2-000039.vmdk no more before because i will lost the work of last days.

Do you think that's possibile to recover one of these snapshots?

Attachment(s)

files list.zip   181 KB 1 version

[twisterice]

allfiles.txt attached

Attachment(s)

allfiles.txt   3 KB 1 version

[twisterice]

other sw2-000010 file attached

Attachment(s)

sw2-000010.txt   800 B 1 version

[a_p_]

Ok, so it looks like we (you) lost snapshot sw2-000010.vmdk, which was originally created between March 1st and March 2nd.

What we should do now is to repair the broken snapshot chain (due to the missing original sw2-000010.vmdk) and create a clone of this disk. Snapshots 000043 and 000044 don't contain data and can be ignored.

What we need to do is:

1.) Repairing the snapshot chain (link sw2-000009.vmdk to sw2-000006.vmdk)

• backup sw2-000009.vmdk since we need to modify this file
• copy the attached sw2-000009.txt to the VM's folder
• copy dsfi.exe to the VMs folder
• run: dsfi.exe "sw2-000009.vmdk" 512 800 "sw2-000009.txt"

2.) Creating a clone

• find a disk with enough free disk space on which the clone will be created!
• run: "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -r C:\vm\sw2\sw2-000042.vmdk -t 0 <Destination_with_free_disk_space>\sw2clone.vmdk
• Create a new VM and attach the cloned vmdk (use existing disk) instead of creating a new disk
• Before you start the VM, create a snapshot in case the clone has some corrupted data and you need to go back to e.g. attach this virtual disk to a helper VM or open it with the disk mounter utility.
• run chkdsk to verify the disk is ok

André

Attachment(s)

sw2-000009.txt   800 B 1 version

[twisterice]

no.1 is completed but no.2 i've an external disk with free space still about for 340 gb...should be sufficient for vm cloned?

i hope that this destination for external disk is temporary in order to make free space on the hard disk c:\...is it correct?

on no.1 i've paste: dsfi.exe "sw2-000009.vmdk" 512 800 "sw2-000009.txt" and it reply with: ok, written 800 bytes at offset 512

[a_p_]

The external disk should be fine as long as it is formatted with NTFS to be able to create large files. Once the cloning is done, you will see how much disk space it consumes. Depending on the size of the clone, you may backup the original files to the external disk to free up disk space and copy the clone to the c: drive. Make sure you don't delete any of the original files until you are sure the clone works!

André

[twisterice]

ok command run....and the file is converting on the external disk dedicated folder.

However, this morning, in the same external disk i've made a whole backup of vm folder.

ok, but after the cloning will be completed, what of c:\vm\sw2 files need i to delete to make free space?

[twisterice]

or better....in order to know if the vm cloned works, what's the next steps?

and then....as we are forced to wait the convertion that seems to be for a long time (now is only at 4% done), can we check the other (or similar) issue in the other dell machine? basically the issue is that machine has full space disk...and what's the safe mode to delete old snapshots?

[a_p_]

1. free up disk space

Since you backed up the files this morning you may delete some or all of these already backed up files from the local disk. I just want to make sure the files can be restored in case the clone does not work as expected. Once you have sufficient free disk space copy the clone to a new folder on the local disk and create a new VM with this clone attached as the virtual disk. Once everything works, you may delete all the old files. Btw what about the ws2-000010.vmdk file that was backed up to the external disk? Is it also just 30k or is it larger and dated either March 1st or 2nd?

2. other server, same issue

To not mix up things, I'd suggest you open a new thread in which you describe the issue and the environment. Also please attach a list of files as well as the vmware.log, vmsd and vmx file. What's the free disk space on this server?

André

[twisterice]

converting: 54% done.

1.

i've created a new vm as blank..but how can i attach the clone to this new vm?

the sw2-000010.vmdk file was 29.888 kb dated 25 march

2.

ok i will open another post with logs file, but please i prefer that you drive me to the solution because you are a real expert :smileyhappy:

actually in that dell t1500 workstation...the disk is 464 gb and now is only free 560 mb....i'm full :smileysad:

overall and then if everything will be ok...can you suggest me a good system to backup the vm? because the autoprotect seems to be not fully reliable

[a_p_]

i've created a new vm as blank..but how can i attach the clone to this new vm?

Either you create the VM once the cloned vmdk is in place and select "use existing disk" in the wizard instead of creating a new disk or - if you already created a new vm - edit the VM's settings and replace the virtual disk.

ok i will open another post with logs file, but please i prefer that you drive me to the solution because you are a real expert

Don't worry, I will see what I can do for you. I just don't want to mix things up in one thread.

overall and then if everything will be ok...can you suggest me a good  system to backup the vm? because the autoprotect seems to be not fully  reliable

There are several options to do a virtual machine backup. The easiest (not the fastest) way would be to backup the VM each day after powering it off. You could speed this up by e.g. creating a snapshot each Friday after work (and deleting the last snapshot). Then use robocopy to do the backup. Since the base disk remains untouched during the week, robocopy only needs to backup the modified snapshot and configuration files. If you decide to create snapshots, always create them with the VM powered off to have a consistent state and also save disk space (no memory snapshots - vmem - needed).

No matter what you do, make sure you backup the files to a separate/extenal disk. It does not help to have snapshots or backed up files on the same disk when the disk dies.

André

[twisterice]

converting sw1: 70% done.

yes you've right to do not mix in the same thread...all of this can be useful to someone else.

However i've created a new post for the full disk of the other dell machine called "disk full and vm stops how to delete old snapshots in safe mode?"

I will try to enter in the settings to use the clone, after the converstion will be completed.

For the backup, i can use also a commercial version that you can tell me but i think that the most important feature should have are:

- backup scheduling indicating the day of the week

- backup more than one snapshot during the day

- a recycle system in order to do not make full the disk

- with a scheduling option there is a possibility to auto power off for doing the snapshots?

what software do you suggesting for?

[continuum]

> because the autoprotect seems to be not fully reliable

sorry - it is not your fault but when reading that I could not do other than laugh out loud.

Snapshots are NOT backups - a backup should be able to restore a complete working state. This is not possible with snapshots.
If one snapshot in the middle of a chain is missing or gets corrupted the whole chain maybe corrupted.

And "autoprotect" just creates snapshots en masse - at a time where nobody in the right  state of mind would create one.

Translate "autoprotect" as "auto-corrupter" or "auto-sabotage" then you know what "autoprotect" really means = the complete opposite of what the name suggests.

[twisterice]

ok :smileyhappy: thank you...now i've understand the difference...sorry for my ignorance.

well....a backup solution as http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/advanced-workstation/index.html

could be a good solution?

if i've understand with backup and recovery advanced workstation, in my case i can backup the dell t1500 machine with all vm inside...but perhaps i need more attention to power off the vm at the end of work day

now the sw1 has been converted. it show the message: virtual disk conversion successfully at 100%

the single file on the external disk is about of 92,38 gb

ok, now i assume that i have to test the clone importing on the new vm created...how?

in virtual machine settings of this new vm, selecting hard disk, i can see two options called utilities and advanced...then?

[a_p_]

"sw1"? I thought we were doing this on "sw2"!?

From what you wrote, I assume you already created a new VM with an empty/new virtual disk!?

Copy the cloned vmdk the folder of the new VM on the local disk. (Make sure there is additional free disk space even after copying!) Then edit the new VM's settings, remove the empty HDD and add another virtual HDD, selecting the cloned vmdk.

André

[twisterice]

yes sorry i mean sw2......sw1 is in the other dell machine for the issue full space hard disk.

yes infact i've already created a new vm....i said to delete it only because to create with the wizard was your primary choice...however i've removed the empty hdd and added the cloned vmdk.

Ahhhh ok now i've understand....delete the curren hdd from settings and add a new one....ok but now i'm still copying the sw2clone...still about 10 min. to the end

[twisterice]

otherwise if i delete it and create a new vm ...where is the option to joint to that vm file?

[a_p_]

otherwise if i delete it and create a new vm ...where is the option to joint to that vm file?

In the wizard you will be asked whether to create a new virtual disk or use an exiting one.

André

[twisterice]

ok sw2clone has just finished to copy on the different folder (c:\vm\sw2clone) while the new vm is located in c:\vm\sw2recover.

In the settings of sw2recover i've delete the default hdd and add in the sw2clone.vmdk...now press ok and i return to the home.

Now what i have to do? power on or other?

[a_p_]

Why didn't you copy the file to the "c:\vm\sw2recover" directory? This would make it easier to understand which files belong to the VM.

Even though you have the cloned vmdk on the external disk as a backup, I'd suggest you create a snapshot prior to booting the VM. If it boots up, run chkdsk to make sure the file system is ok.

André

[twisterice]

sorry i've not understand...

1- now the sw2clone.vmdk where must be located?

2- then i create a snapshot of this new vm...but first of power on, i have to run chkdsk from the prompt?

[a_p_]

Sorry, I was not clear enough. Here are the steps I would recommend.

• You may place the sw2clone.vmdk whereever you want, however it is easier for you to maintain your VM's if all the files which belong to it are in the same folder.
• Before you start the VM, create a snapshot.
• Once the VM has booted successfully, run chkdsk c: /f in the VM. There could be some corruption due to the missing sw2-000010.vmdk snapshot.

André

[twisterice]

ok so it is better to cut and paste sw2clone.vmdk from c:\vm\sw2clone to c:\vm\sw2 ? is it correct?

then i will do a snapshot before to power on and the run a chkdsk inside the prompt of the vm

all these steps are correct? 

[a_p_]

As of now - if I understood correctly - you have 3 folders:

c:\vm\sw2 (contains the old VM with the snapshots)

c:\vm\sw2clone (contains the sw2clone.vmdk)

c:\vm\sw2recover (contains the new VM you created)

Is this correct?

Since the new VM you created is in the c:\vm\sw2recover folder, I would move (cut&paste) the sw2clone.vmdk to this folder. After moving the vmdk to this folder, don't forget to edit the VM's settings again to attach the disk from this folder.

then i will do a snapshot before to power on and the run a chkdsk inside the prompt of the vm

Corretto.

André

[twisterice]

YEEEEEEAH!!!! :smileyhappy: my sw2 vm is still alive.....THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU :smileylaugh:

but if i try to make chkdsk c: /f it show me that i've no sufficient permission to run it...strange because that user is an administrator of that local computer

now in this moment that windows vista is reinstalling some drivers..probably of the vm....are referring to standard pci express

[a_p_]

Great to hear it's up and running again.

To be able to run the chkdsk command you may need to start the Command Line by right clicking it in the start menu and selecting "Run as Administrator".

André

[twisterice]

ok...however i'm logged on as an administrator and now the chkdsk is started......wow that adventure! :smileyhappy:

i hope that will be useful to someone with the same issue.

...and howerver as you are so kind, please send me a private message with your iban coordinates for a bank transfer and i will do in few minutes or by paypal as you wish (although I have not yet done).

...i've also disabled the autoprotect :smileyhappy:

ok and now? i need to use a good backup solution dedicated to the vm but with a schedule features...any suggestion?

[a_p_]

There's no need to pay for this, you were very welcome and I'm glad we were able to solve your issue.

i hope that will be useful to someone with the same issue.

To make this discussion even more useful for others, please go through the posts and mark the posts that helped you much as "Correct" and/or "Helpful" and set the thread to "Answered".

About backup. I'm not aware of a software dedicated for backing up virtual machines. Maybe Acronis TrueImage will be useful for you.

André

[a_p_]

ok and now? i need to use a good backup solution dedicated to the vm but with a schedule features...any suggestion?

Maybe you should open another thread with this question. I'm sure there are at least some community members with ideas and/or solutions for doing automated backups.

André

[twisterice]

ok as you wish...still remain the last question posted on "disk full and vm stops how to delete old snapshots in safe mode?"

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING...ehi folks this guy is very very very good!

[twisterice]

i've found a new good friend, but I will not abuse to him :smileyhappy:

[continuum]

I would recommend to NOT use "autoprotect" for important VMs