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  • 1.  Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 14, 2016 03:00 PM

    After a crash I'm getting the following on one server.

    An unexpected error was received from the ESX host while powering on VM vm-10961.

    Reason: Failed to lock the file.

    Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/UniqueIdenitfier/ServerName/ServerName_1-000001.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    VMDK files as follows

    ServerName.vmdk

    ServerName_1.vmdk

    ServerName_4.vmdk

    ServerName_5.vmdk

    ServerName_1-000001.vmdk

    ServerName_4-000001.vmdk

    ServerName_5-000001.vmdk

    The above files are around 50gb each.

    Im currently downloading to for a backup and will check the CID. Any other help would be appreciated.



  • 2.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 14, 2016 05:02 PM

    Have tried deleting the snapshots and pointing the VM to those files?

    ServerName_1.vmdk

    ServerName_4.vmdk

    ServerName_5.vmdk



  • 3.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 08:53 AM

    Erm. Snapshot manager shows only one snapshot. Unfortunately from a year or so ago.

    When you say delete i assume you me via the manager and not by browsing the datastore and manually deleting?



  • 4.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 12:02 PM

    > When you say delete i assume you me via the manager and not by browsing the datastore and manually deleting?Do NOT delete snapshots at this time - especially not by using the datastorebrowser. You will lose the data of the last year !!!
    Instead find out what is actually locking the files - this can be a automatic backuptool for example.
    Try to identify the process that locks the files via lsof.



  • 5.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 09:19 AM

    Are you running in a DRS, Cluster, it could be possibly another server has tried to start the server up and has the locks

    Good place to start https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=10051



  • 6.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 11:22 AM

    No, its not a cluster.



  • 7.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 01:17 PM

    Take a look at this article, it will help you identify locks.  This should at least get you in the right direction.

    Investigating virtual machine file locks on ESXi (10051) | VMware KB



  • 8.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 15, 2016 02:45 PM

    Do the storage vMotion. mostley it will disappear.



  • 9.  RE: Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

    Posted Nov 16, 2016 09:17 AM

    I've found this is the best command to use:

    vmfsfilelockinfo -p /vmfs/volumes/UniqueIdenitfier/ServerName/ServerName_1-000001.vmdk