PowerProtect: VM backups fail with ABV0018 "Unable to create LWD snapshot."

Summary: The virtual machine (VM) backups fail with exit status ABV0018 during the Creating Light Weight Delta (LWD) snapshot step.

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Symptoms

The PowerProtect Data Manager is used to protect the vSphere environment with the Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) solution. The virtual machine (VM) backups fail with exit status ABV0018 during the "Creating LWD snapshot" step. The PowerProtect Data Manager interface job details show: 
ABV0018: VM Direct engine 'localhost' is unable to back up the virtual machine 'my-vm' on vCenter 'my-vcenter.domain.local' because of a vCenter connection issue.

The VM Direct engine cannot complete the backup of this virtual machine because a connection with the vCenter cannot be established.

 To troubleshoot this issue: 1) Verify that the vCenter can be reached. 2) If the vCenter is busy, wait for some activities to complete and then retry the operation. 

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Unable to create LWD snapshot.  vCenter task 'task-19555' failed:  VimFault: 'dp.vpx.fault.DpdConnectionLost.summary': HTTP error response: Bad Request
ABV00016 error
The backup export log shows: 
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS DEBUG:  [a2f5cd4b522e3631;9701a8efeb09207a] SDM Data Mover: Create LWD Snapshot: vCenter SOAP call 'DpSnapshot' was accepted.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ERROR:  [a2f5cd4b522e3631;9701a8efeb09207a] SDM Data Mover: Create LWD Snapshot: vCenter task 'task-19480' failed:  VimFault: 'dp.vpx.fault.DpsFault.summary': Operation was canceled
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS ERROR:  [a2f5cd4b522e3631;9701a8efeb09207a] SDM Data Mover: Create LWD Snapshot: Unable to create LWD snapshot.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS DEBUG:  [a2f5cd4b522e3631;9701a8efeb09207a] SDM Data Mover: Create LWD Snapshot: Retrying in 15s...
The vSphere Web Client shows tasks for the affected VM shows continuous error tasks when taking the LWD-based snapshot.
vSphere Web Client Screenshot showing continuous LWD snapshot errors.
 
 

Cause

The vSphere Web Client shows the DPD daemon in a Stopped status on the ESXi server hosting the affected VMs.
ESX DPD stopped state
The cause of the DPD being in a Stopped state is unknown.

Resolution

The DPD must be restarted on the affected ESXi host. The DPD may be started using an ESXi ssh session: 
[root@my-esx:~] /etc/init.d/dpd status
dpd is stopped
[root@my-esx:~] /etc/init.d/dpd start
Starting dpd:Setting the memory limit for dpd resource pool on this host to 320 MB
Setting max number of file descriptors to 800
Setting MALLOC_ARENA_MAX to 20
success

[root@my-esx:~] /etc/init.d/dpd status
dpd is running
The DPD may also be started using the vSphere Web Client for the affected ESXi host under "Configure > Services":
 
Start dpd via the vSphere Web Client
If required, contact VMware Support to further investigate the DPD showing a Stopped state.
Article Properties
Article Number: 000223337
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 21 Nov 2025
Version:  2
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