Troubleshooting › Virtual Standby Jobs Fail Due to Internal Errors

Virtual Standby Jobs Fail Due to Internal Errors

Valid on Windows operating systems.

Symptom 1:

Virtual standby jobs fail. One of the following messages appears in the Activity Log:

Failed to convert virtual disk

An internal error occurred, contact technical support

In addition, VDDK reports the following error message:

Unknown Error.

Solution 1:

To correct this problem, consider the following solutions:

• Conversion operations can fail when there is not enough free disk space on the data store that is specified in the Virtual Standby policy. VDDK returns the message because the VDDK API (currently) does not support the capability to detect the amount of free disk space on the data store. To correct this problem, free the amount of disk space on the original data store that is required to complete the operation and then resubmit the job.
• Network disturbance and high network traffic can cause the conversion operations to fail. To correct this problem, verify that source node and the ESX Server system or the vCenter Server system can communicate with each other though the network, and then resubmit the job.
• Multiple concurrent connections consisting of backup or recover VM jobs to the ESX Server system or the vCenter Server system, which includes vSphere SDK connections through the VMware vSphere Client, can cause the jobs to fail. To correct this problem, close all unnecessary connections and then resubmit the job.

  This problem is the result of a VMware VDDK connection limitation. The following Network File Copy (NFC) protocol limits apply:

  • ESXi 5: Limited by a transfer buffer for all NFC connections and enforced by the host; the sum of all NFC connection buffers to an ESXi host cannot exceed 32MB. 52 connections through vCenter Server which includes the per-host limit.

  Note:

   

  Connections cannot be shared across disks. The maximum limits do not apply to SAN or HotAdd connections. If the NFC client fails to shut down properly, connections can remain open for ten minutes.

• Examine the Tasks and Events sections of the VMware vSphere Client log to discover internal errors for the specific virtual machine. Correct the internal errors and then resubmit the job.

  Example:

   

  Another application or operation is using the VMDK file. To correct this problem, release the file and then resubmit the job.

Symptom 2:

Virtual standby jobs fail. One of the following messages appears in the Activity Log:

Failed to convert virtual disk

An internal error occurred, contact technical support

In addition, VDDK reports the following error message:

Open vmdk failed with error File not found.

Solution 2:

This problem can occur when:

• VDDK did not process a snapshot properly.
• VDDK did not delete a snapshot manually or internal to the virtual machine.

• To correct this problem, resubmit the job. If the job fails again, delete the recovered virtual machine and resubmit the job.