VMware snapshots not deleted

Last Updated: Apr 08, 2015 11:55AM CEST

Background:

All calls to the VMware API (that includes calls to create and delete the snapshot(s)) are done using the SOAP interface to the API.

At backup start, a SOAP session is initiated by connecting and authenticating to the VMware host.

The log shows this as example:

2014-09-21 12:00:10.399+02:00 <INFO> [3740] Connected to vSphere host '192.168.153.35'

This session is then used throughout the complete backup.

There is a timeout for this one session.

Vmware.exe refreshes this session in a 10 minute interval in a separate thread.

Possible Problem:

In the vmware.exe backup log you may see, that the execution backup calls takes very long, for instance opening the disk, as example:

2014-09-21 12:10:22.314+02:00 <INFO> [3740] Storing virtual disk: tvw-ts1n-000004.vmdk

…

2014-09-21 12:28:39.919+02:00 <INFO> [3740] Opened disk 'tvw-ts1n-000004.vmdk' with transport mode 'nbd'

Here the open takes 18 minutes. Usually it takes seconds.

It might be the case that backup calls tot e API take so long that the refresh will not take place anymore and the session timeout hits the session.

As a consequence, the session will be closed.

You may see this in the log, when the session was closed and the refresh is unsuccessful:

2014-09-22 03:14:55.488+02:00 <WARNING> [3740] SessionRefresher::refresh failed

Aconsequence of the terminated SOAP session ist hat the call to delete the snapshot will never be transmitted to the VMWare host:

2014-09-22 08:23:35.137+02:00 <INFO> [3740] Removing snapshot '8-snapshot-197' (consolidate: true)

2014-09-22 08:23:50.432+02:00 <ERROR> [3740] VTools::removeSnapshot@vm.cpp(1353): SOAP error (SOAP 1.1 fault: "":ServerFaultCode[no subcode]

"The session is not authenticated."

Detail:

)

2014-09-22 08:23:57.968+02:00 <WARNING> [3740] Failed to remove snapshot: A called function returned with an error (VTools::removeSnapshot)

2014-09-22 08:24:01.122+02:00 <ERROR> [3740] visdk::ServerContext::logout@visdk.cpp(32): SOAP error (SOAP 1.1 fault: "":ServerFaultCode[no subcode]

"The session is not authenticated."

Detail:

)

Solution:

Enlarge the session timeout to 90 minutes using the link given on top of this mail.