VMware backups fails for Windows 2008 R2 with winerror 1168
Problem description
VMware backup job fails with the following error:
An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine.
The error is encountered despite of the following verifications:
- Output of the command Vssadmin list writers shows WMI, ASR, System writers are timed out.
- Restart of the VSS service, gives the same result.
- VMware tools are also updated.
- Server is rebooted.
Cause
This is a known issue with VMware for Windows 2008 servers
Review the VMware KB for more information.
Traceback
- Error Code: VMWARE_VMOMI1 is logged under Phoenix.log.
- Event viewer of the Virtual Machine server shows Event ID – 8193
/var/log/Phoenix/Backup/<backupsetId>/Phoenix.log
"agents/vmware/vmwareAgent.py", line 4210, in do_snapshot\n File "agents/vmware/vSphereAdapter.py", line 1094, in create_snapshot\nSyncError: An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. Please retry the backup/restore again. (#100060001 : vim.fault.ApplicationQuiesceFault) (Error Code : VMWARE_VMOMI1)\n', 'error_code': 4295360513, 'error_msg': 'An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. Please retry the backup/restore again.'}]
Event Viewer shows
Event id - 8193
IOCTL_DISK_SET_SNAPSHOT_INFO(\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1) fails with winerror 1168. hr = 0x80070490, Element not found.
Resolution
Disable the Enable VMware tools quiescing option from the backup policy for that virtual machine. For more information, see Update a backup policy.
Note: If the same policy is applied for other virtual machines, it will affect all the servers.