Written by Suhas Savkoor
A virtual machine backup was continuously failing with the error: VDP: Miscellaneous error.
When you look at the backup job log at the location:
# cd /usr/local/avamarclient/var
2016-08-18T08:24:59.099+07:00 avvcbimage Warning <40722>: The VM 'Win2012R2/' could not be located on the datastore:[FreeNAS-iSCSI] Win2012R2/Win2012R2.vmx
2016-08-18T08:24:59.099+07:00 avvcbimage Warning <40649>: DataStore/File Metadata download failed.
2016-08-18T08:24:59.099+07:00 avvcbimage Warning <0000>: [IMG0016] The datastore from VMX '[FreeNAS-iSCSI] Win2012R2/Win2012R2.vmx' could not be fully inspected.
2016-08-18T08:24:59.128+07:00 avvcbimage Info <0000>: initial attempt at downloading VM file failed, now trying by re-creating the HREF, (CURL) /folder/Win2012R2%2fWin2012R2.vmx?dcPath=%252fDatacenter&dsName=FreeNAS-iSCSI, (LEGACY) /fold
er/Win2012R2%2FWin2012R2.vmx?dcPath=%252FDatacenter&dsName=FreeNAS%252DiSCSI.
2016-08-18T08:25:29.460+07:00 avvcbimage Info <40756>: Attempting to Download file:/folder/Win2012R2%2FWin2012R2.vmx?dcPath=%252FDatacenter&dsName=FreeNAS%252DiSCSI
2016-08-18T08:25:29.515+07:00 avvcbimage Warning <15995>: HTTP fault detected, Problem with returning page from HTTP, Msg:'SOAP 1.1 fault: SOAP-ENV:Server [no subcode]
"HTTP Error"
Detail: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Warning <40650>: Download VM .vmx file failed.
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Error <17821>: failed to download vm metadata, try later
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Info <9772>: Starting graceful (staged) termination, failed to download vm metadata (wrap-up stage)
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Error <0000>: [IMG0009] createSnapshot: snapshot creation or pre/post snapshot script failed
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Error <0000>: [IMG0009] createSnapshot: snapshot creation/pre-script/post-script failed
2016-08-18T08:25:59.645+07:00 avvcbimage Info <40654>: isExitOK()=157
Here we see that the backup is failing as it is unable to gather the vmx file details of the client it is trying to backup. It is unable to gather the vmx details is because it is unable to locate the client on the datastore.
This issue occurs when the virtual machine files or the folder itself are manually moved to a different folder.
If you look at the below screenshot, you see my virtual machine is under a folder called "do not power on"
Now, if you have a look the actual vmx file of this Windows2012R2 machine you see it is different.
From this, my virtual machine was initially under the FreeNAS-iSCSI / VM folder / VM Files and then this was moved to the "do not power on" folder. If you just move the virtual machine, the vmx file will not be updated with the new path. VDP during the backup will look at this path of the virtual machine and will fail because we do not have the vmx file in this location.
To fix this, you will have to remove the virtual machine from the inventory and re-add it back to the inventory. Doing this will update the vmx file location as seen below. Once the correct location is populated you can run the backups for this virtual machine.
To register VM to inventory you can follow this KB article here.
That's pretty much it!