Unable to configure the Virtual Machine to Enable the "Disk.EnableUUID" Parameter

Symptom

An error occurs during the reconfiguration of the virtual machine to enable the 'disk.EnableUUID' parameter, required for an application-consistent backup. This issue occurs when the virtual environment has recovered from an error.

Solution

This issue is specific to VMware Environment. This issue occurs when the Microsoft VSS attempts to perform an application-quiesced snapshot, but fails to read the disk UUID or Serial Number value for one or more virtual machine disks.

The disk.EnableUUID parameter of the VM must be enabled. VMs created on 4.1 or later have this parameter enabled by default. The backup job automatically configures to avoid data inconsistency and perform application-consistent backup. If the backup job fails to enable disk.EnableUUID, manually configure the parameter using the following steps:

Follow these steps:

  1. Power off the virtual machine.
  2. Log in to the vCenter Server or the ESXi/ESX host through the vSphere Client.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit settings.
  4. Click the Options tab.
  5. Navigate to Advanced > General > Configuration Parameters.
  6. Add or modify the row disk.EnableUUID and set it to True.
  7. Click OK to save.
  8. Click OK to exit.
  9. Reboot the virtual machine for changes to take in effect.

Note: If the parameter is already set to True There is a non disruptive workaround, and that is to edit the vmx and set the disk.enableUUID value to false, then vMotion the vm (to any other host), to reload the vmx in host memory. This effectively disables application level quiescing (file system quiescing is still available though).