Avamar: Error occurs when saving snapshots for VMware Virtual Machine backups

Summary: Avamar image-level backups for VMware virtual machines (VM) fail with a snapshot creation error. The failure occurs during snapshot creation even when using non-quiesced backups and can also prevent manual snapshots and Storage vMotion. ...

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Symptoms

During VMware virtual machine (VM) image-level backups, the jobs fail and the following symptoms may be observed:

  1. Avamar backup logs contain snapshot errors, such as:

avvcbimage Info <0000>: Snapshot 'Avamar-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' creation for VM '[<Datastore_Name>] VM_Name/VM_Name.vmx' task still in progress, sleep for 3 sec
avvcbimage Error <16279>: vSphere Task failed (snapshot error=45): 'fault.GenericVmConfigFault.summary'.
avvcbimage Error <14635>: Snapshot 'Avamar-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' creation for VM '[<Datastore_Name>] VM_Name/VM_Name.vmx' task creation encountered a problem.

  1. vCenter displays the following task error for the VM:

    An error occurred while taking a snapshot:msg.snapshot.error-QUIESCINGERROR
  2. The issue persists when running non-quiesced backups using the --quiesce_fs=false flag.
  3. Manual snapshot creation in vCenter fails for the affected VM.
  4. Storage vMotion operations fail for the same VM.
  5. The VM's vmware.log file records datastore free-space errors, for example: 
    vcpu-0| I120: DISKLIB-VMFS : "/vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/VM_Name/VM_Name-flat.vmdk" : closed.
| vcpu-0| W110: File_GetFreeSpace: Couldn't statfs /vmfs/volumes/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/VM_Name
| vcpu-0| I120: SNAPSHOT: SnapshotCheckSpaceAndSnapshotNum: Error getting the free space on the storage disk

  6. The datastore shows sufficient free space when verified through vCenter and the storage array.

Cause

This issue occurs when vCenter Server or the ESXi host incorrectly reports datastore free-space information for a specific datastore. As a result, snapshot creation fails despite sufficient available storage.

Resolution

Rescan Storage on the ESXi Host or Datacenter

Rescan the storage to refresh datastore information and correct the reported free-space values.

  1. Follow the VMware documentation that corresponds to the deployed VMware vSphere version: 

    Performing a rescan of the storage on an ESXi host  (External Link)

  2. After the rescan completes:

    • Retry creating a snapshot manually in vCenter.
    • Re-run the Avamar image-level backup.
Rescanning storage at the datacenter level can take a significant amount of time. During the rescan:
  • vMotion operations may not be available.
  • Certain datastore operations may be temporarily restricted.
  • Always consult the VMware administrator before performing a storage rescan in a production environment. 

Affected Products

Avamar

Products

Avamar, Avamar Client for VMware, Avamar Virtual Edition
Article Properties
Article Number: 000168075
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 07 شوال 1447
Version:  6
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