How To Create A Snapshot In Hyper V 2012 R2

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A snapshot were created in Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V VM. Os and Data virtual disk. Not really sure why but it started couple of days ago. The last thing i am doing was documenting the configurations and ran a windows update.

The following day, SQL backup and Veeam backup has an error.

Checked the VM and the virtual hard disk on both the OS and Data virtual HD was pointed to .avhdx file.

After researching, I need to merge the avhdx to parent virtual disk to be able to work with as usual.

First i checked that vthere are no checkpoints (nothing showing in the checkpoints box)

I followed the steps on merging the avhdx to parent by shutting down the VM first.

Then i did the merge but received an error "unable to edit virtual disk hyper V. The operation failed because the file was not found.

I close the operation and tried to boot the machine, but cannot find the file.

I went back to Hyper-V Manager and tried to change the OS virtual disk from .avhdx to .vhdx.

changed the Virtual disk from .avhdx to .vhdx
pick create checkpoint and continue
cannot create checkpoint - do you want to continue
I choose No
Applying changes started

Why it went to applying changes (still running 2 hours now) when i picked No?

Thanks for all the input.

taurex

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Nov 1, 2020 at 23:33 UTC

I'd first check the VM's underlying storage and make sure there is enough space. Looks like this was a recovery checkpoint created by your backup software. Recovery checkpoints would not show up in GUI but can still be merged in Powershell without a need for shutdown. A backup application that does host-level VM backups always creates a snapshot (checkpoint in Microsoft terms) first to build a backup off it but would delete a snapshot once a backup is complete. In detail, the process for Veeam is outlined here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/hyperv/online_backup.html?ver=100#2012r2 If Veeam didn't delete the checkpoint then most likely the storage has run out of space or there were some serious underlying issues with the VM. Sometimes, you would need to move the VM to another host or export the VM and create its copy in order to fix the problem.

4 Replies

and how to move forward so i can use the previous setup. tnx!

ps...

I forgot to mention, before doing the merge, when i access the VM, i did not see the (E:) data drive (missing).

Edited Nov 1, 2020 at 20:57 UTC

taurex

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Nov 1, 2020 at 23:33 UTC

Supaplex

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Nov 3, 2020 at 08:58 UTC

As already mentioned by taurex, the safes way to handle messed up checkpoints would be exporting the virtual machine, completely purging its folder, and importing it back again.

Alternative methods include making a backup using Veeam and restoring the machine back again. A quicker option, however, might be just cloning the virtual machine using either Windows Admin Center https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/windows-admin-center or V2V Converter https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter if you have enough free capacity for that operation. Do not forget to purge the old VM's folder afterward.

Thank you for all the answers. We have enough storage so that was not the issue. We cannot export/move the vm files (errors) but did a file restore (Veeam) and did an import and register (Hyper-V). The server is back now and running. Thank you all again for your answer.

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