Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions for space reclamation in VMware Horizon View 5.2.x and 5.3.x (2039907)

Cause

For the space reclamation feature to work correctly, ensure that:

• VMware Tools provided with vSphere version 5.1 or later are installed on the virtual machine.
• The virtual machine is using virtual hardware version 9 or later.
• In the View Administrator console, the Reclaim VM disk space option is selected for the vCenter Server. For more information, see Allow vSphere to Reclaim Disk Space in Linked-Clone Virtual Machines in the VMware Horizon View 5.2 Administration Guide. 
• In the View Administrator console, the Reclaim VM disk space option is selected for the desktop pool. For more information, see Reclaim Disk Space on Linked-Clone Desktops in the VMware Horizon View 5.2  Administration Guide.
• The virtual machine is powered on before you initiate the space reclamation operation.
• There is space that can be reclaimed. This space exists when data is deleted from the guest OS. Sending files to the Recycle Bin does not delete them.
• The virtual machine is using SCSI disks.
• Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is disabled on the parent virtual machine.

Resolution

This is a list of possible issues you may encounter with the space reclamation feature in VMware Horizon View 5.2 or 5.3.

Issue 1

Symptom:
In vCenter Server tasks, you see the error:

Task: Wipe a Flex-SE virtual disk
Status: A general system error occurred: Wipe Disk failed: Failed to complete wipe operation.

Possible cause:
VMware Tools has not been upgraded to the latest version provided with the host, which must be version 5.1 or later.

Resolution:
Upgrade the VMware Tools in the guest OS, then reboot the guest OS.

Issue 2

Symptom:

• The vmware.log in the virtual machine folder contains messages similar to:

11-14T18:48:52.922Z| vcpu-0| I120: ToolsRpcDiskWipeProgress: progress response: No wipable disks found
11-14T18:48:52.922Z| vcpu-0| W110: DiskVigorWipeProgressCB: Wipe progress RPC Error: No wipable disks found

Possible cause:
The virtual machine does not have SCSI disks.

Resolution:
The disk (the OS virtual disk in View) must be SCSI, not IDE. Space reclamation does not work on IDE virtual disks.

Issue 3

Symptoms:

• When space reclamation is launched, you see this event in vCenter Server:

General system error: Wipe disk failed

• In the vmware.log file, you see messages similar to:
  
  2012-11-22T19:53:16.006Z| vcpu-0| I120: ToolsRpcDiskWipeProgress: progress response: No wipable disks found

2012-11-22T19:53:16.006Z| vcpu-0| W110: DiskVigorWipeProgressCB: Wipe progress RPC Error: No wipable disks found
  
  
• In the VMware Tools log file, you see messages similar to:
  
  [Nov 23 14:44:55.646] [    info] [vmsvc] Could not initialize backend for drive C:\: 50
  [Nov 23 14:44:55.646] [ warning] [diskWiper] Mount point C:\ is not wipable
  [...]
  [Nov 23 14:44:55.646] [    info] [vmsvc] Device specifically advertises its NON-TP nature, bailing out.
[Nov 23 14:44:55.646] [    info] [vmsvc] Failed to get Initialize SCSI Backend TP Device \\.\PhysicalDrive2 status 50.
  
  
• When you run the grep scsi *vmx command, you see output similar to:
  
  $ grep scsi *vmx
  
  scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
  scsi0:0.fileName = "wlabsetest1-checkpoint.vmdk"
  scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
scsi0:0.ctkEnabled = "TRUE"

Cause:
CBT is enabled for the virtual machine.

If CBT is enabled on an SE sparse disk based pool, then space reclamation does not work.

Resolution:
To work around this issue, disable CBT on the parent virtual machine and recompose the pool.

Disable CBT for the OS disk (typically scsi0:0 ). For more information, see Enabling Changed Block Tracking (CBT) on virtual machines (1031873).

Note: Space reclamation only affects the OS disk, so disable the CBT on the OS disk only.