Skip to main content

Unlock the VMware VM vmdk file

 Unlock the VMware VM vmdk file


Kill -9 PID


Sometimes a file or set of files in a VMFS become locked and any attempts to edit them or delete will give a device or resource busy error, even though the vm associated with the files is not running. If the vm is running then you would need to stop the vm to manipulate the files. If you know that the vm is stopped then you need to find the ESX server that has the files locked and then stop the process that is locking the file(s).




  • 1. Logon to the ESX host where the VM was last known to be running.
  • 2. vmkfstools -D /vmfs/volumes/path/to/file to dump information on the file into /var/log/vmkernel
  • 3. less /var/log/vmkernel and scroll to the bottom, you will see output like below:
  • a. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: 2:00:15:18.435 cpu6:1038)FS3: 130: <START vmware-16.log>
  • b. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: 2:00:15:18.435 cpu6:1038)Lock [type 10c00001 offset 30439424 v 21, hb offset 4154368
  • c. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: gen 66493, mode 1, owner 46c60a7c-94813bcf-4273-0017a44c7727 mtime 8781867] ك Bold type added to number for emphasis.
  • d. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: 2:00:15:18.435 cpu6:1038)Addr <4, 588, 7>, gen 20, links 1, type reg, flags 0x0, uid 0, gid 0, mode 644
  • e. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: 2:00:15:18.435 cpu6:1038)len 23973, nb 1 tbz 0, zla 2, bs 65536
  • f. Nov 29 15:49:17 vm22 vmkernel: 2:00:15:18.435 cpu6:1038)FS3: 132: <END vmware-16.log>
  • 4. The owner of the lock is on line 3c, the last part is all you need, in this case 0017a44c7727
  • 5. esxcfg-info | grep -i 'system uuid' | awk -F '-' '{print $NF}' will display the system uuid of the esx server. You need to run the esxcfg-info command on each esx server in the cluster to discover the owner.
  • 6. When you find the ESX server that matches the uuid owner, logon to that ESX server and run the command: ps -elf|grep vmname where vmname is the problem vm. Example output below:
  • a. 4 S root 7570 1 0 65 -10 - 435 schedu Nov27 ? 00:00:02 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmkload_app /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -ssched.group=host/user/pool2 -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmxf7fb85ef5d8b3522;vm=f7fb85ef5d8b3522 /vmfs/volumes/470e25b6-37016b37-a2b3-001b78bedd4c/iu-lsps-vstest/iu-lsps-vstest.vmx0
  • 7. Since there is a process running, pid 7570 in the example, you need to kill it by following steps 5-12 on stopping a VM above
  • 8. Once the kill is complete the files should be released.

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

Question كيفية عمل share للـ outlook conntact لكل الـ Domain Users

  الحل بسيط جدا عايز الكونتاكت تتحدث دايما بحيث انك لما تضيف يوزر جديد يسمع في الكونتاكت اول حاجه بتدخل علي in office 2003 tools --- email account ---- add address book --- internet directory service (LDAP) type your server name then login info . mark this server require me to logon type any user on active directory and its password then save and close outlook and open it again now you will find all your active directory users in address book
Post a comment
Read more

3 things has to be done for better performance

  Tips from Goutham: 3 things has to be done for better performance: By default, XP displays extra graphic objects for menu items which can slow down your display. 1. To turn off these selectively... Right click My Computer Select Properties Click Advanced tab Under Performance, click Settings button To turn them all off, select Adjust for best performance Preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging 2. To speed up the display of the Start Menu Items, turn off the menu shadow. Right click open area of the Desktop Select Properties Click Appearance tab Click Effects button Uncheck Show shadows under menus 3. You can increase system performance by loading more of the system into memory. DO NOT attempt this with less then 512MBs of ram. Your system will become unstable. Click Start Click Run Enter regedit Click OK Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Memory Management Double cli
Post a comment
Read more

The difference between DNS and NDS

  Novell Directory Services(NDS) - Novell Directory Services (NDS) is a popular software product for managing access to computer resources and keeping track of the users of a  network , such as a company's  intranet , from a single point of administration. Using NDS, a network administrator can set up and control a  database  of users and manage them using a  directory  with an easy-to-use graphical user interface ( GUI ). Users of computers at remote locations can be added, updated, and managed centrally. Applications can be distributed electronically and maintained centrally. NDS can be installed to run under  Windows NT , Sun Microsystem's Solaris, and IBM's  OS/390  as well as under Novell's own  NetWare  so that it can be used to control a multi-platform network. NDS is generally considered an industry  benchmark  against which other products, such as Microsoft's Active Directory, must compete. Lucent Technologies plans to integrate NDS into its own QIP product
Post a comment
Read more