Unable to remove snapshots - consolidate helper

[Jbmazzola]

Hi everyone,

I'm having problems with a particular windows 2000 VM in my ESX 3.02 and VC2.02 environment.

I'm trying to remove the snapshots for the vm, there are about 4 snaps in total, everytime i try and remove one, it gets to 95% complete and then gets an error.

The error is usually: a general internal error occured, or operation timed out.

After this error, it does seem to remove the snap, however there is a "consolidate helper" snap in there now that i cannot remove? Can somebody give me some advice on any tips to clean up the snaps and get it working properly again?

Thanks

[Jbmazzola]

i'm also noticing that when i run a test snapshot, i lose connectivity to the vm until the snapshot is complete? Is this normal?

[DaveConverySHI]

Bad news... You can try "service mgmt-vmware start" at the service console, but it usually does not help. Try shutting down the VM and deleting the snapshot. If that does not work, the only thing I have seen to work is doing a cold clone to a new VM and deleting the old VM. SUX!

Dave

[Jbmazzola]

yep, a cold clone to a new vmdk file was the only way i got rid of it. Thanks :smileysilly:

[RaniBaki]

Are you referring to doing a cold clone using Converter (or another product)?

[DaveConverySHI]

A "cold Clone" is the process of shutting down the VM, right click and select clone. It makes a copy of the VM.

[RaniBaki]

Yes, but you can't clone a VM if it contains snapshots. That's why I was thinking that it is a cold clone using "Converter"

I've read that you can use Converter to hot clone a VM to a new name and get rid of all the snapshots. Will a cold clone using Converter do the same?

[DaveConverySHI]

I have not had that issue. I would think using converter will produce the same result.

[RaniBaki]

Thanks for your response.

Are you certain that you are able to clone a VM that has active snapshots?

I get a "Migration of virtual machines with snapshots is not supported between the source and destination".

What version of VC and ESX are you running?

[Jbmazzola]

Just to make things clear, i ran the:

vmkfstools -i tool to fix the issue and create the new vmdk files.

Cheers

[Strike1]

I had the same error, I attempted to remove the snapshot which failed, I then received the "consolidate helper" snap inplace of the removed

snapshot.(also failed when attempted to delete)

I had three drives 20GB,100GB and 250 GB (SQL Server...)and yes migration worked for me. I migrated the server from HPBlade1 to HPBlade2

kept 20gb and 250gb in same datastore but moved the 100gb to a new datastore. took 30min to complete and started 100%.

Thanx for the postings it all helps

[mradamk]

I am experiencing similar prolems but the suggested workaround is pretty drastic and I think not practical in a production environment.

Does anyone know whether a bug has been opened against this issue?

[rbos3]

Hi JBmazzola,

I just tried your solution on the "primary vmdk files" but all the other .vmdk files that resist in this directory are NOT applied to the primary vmdk file after cloning it. Did you have this same problem?

I am now cloning thru the GUI and hopefully all changes are commited to the primary vmdk.

With kind regards,

René Bos

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[wardb0071]

I've had the consolidate helper problem many times, All you have to do is create a new snapshot. after that completes, go back into snapshot manager and select delete all snapshots and it will get rid of the consolidate helper and the new snapshot.

If your snapshot is rather large, the removing of the snap shot will error out at 95% (this is normal as there is a predifined time out to get a finished response) even though it errors out it is still merging the files in the background.

Hope this helps

Cheers,

Brian

[anders_haugerud]

Brian,

this was the simpliest and best solution to solve this problem, worked for me in two minutes..

Thank you !!

Anders

[topperchb]

Thats the Daddy fix - add a snap then delete them all. Worked in 2 minutes :smileyhappy: