Failed to quiesce the virtual machine – ESXI 6.5 – Windows 2012 R2

Last updated Jan 13, 2024 0

An error occurred while taking a snapshot: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine. ESXi 6.5 – Windows 2012 R2

Issue: The virtual machine has a physical RDM (Raw Device Map) attached when taking a backup or manual snapshot, You will see the following error

“An error occurred while quiescing the virtual machine. See the virtual machine’s event log for details.
An error occurred while taking a snapshot: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine.
An error occurred while saving the snapshot: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine.”

An error also appears in the event viewer application logs of the system

” Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error DeviceIoControl(\\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b} – 00000000000004DC,0x00560000,0000000000000000,0,0000023AEBCEF9B0,4096,[0]). hr = 0x80070001, Incorrect function.
Operation:
Exposing Recovered Volumes
Locating shadow-copy LUNs
PostSnapshot Event
Executing Asynchronous Operation
Context:
Device: \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
Examining Detected Volume: Existing – \\?\fdc#generic_floppy_drive#6&2bc13940&0&0#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
Execution Context: Provider
Provider Name: VMware Snapshot Provider
Provider Version: 1.0.0
Provider ID: {564d7761-7265-2056-5353-2050726f7669}
Current State: DoSnapshotSet ”

Solution: There can be multiple reasons for this error to appear.
Method 1:

Right-click the virtual machine and select settings
You will find there is a floppy drive listed which is commonly not required. You can also confirm this by logging on to the operating system and drives on my computer.
Attempt to remove the floppy drive but you may not succeed so you have to shut down the VM and remove it.
In some cases, it still appears on my computer even after removing it from settings. You can perform the following steps given by Vmware to get rid of this completely.
VMware KB
Power off the virtual machine.
Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
Click the Options tab.
Click Boot Options under Advanced.
Select The next time the virtual machine boots, force entry into the BIOS setup screen option.
Power on the virtual machine.
Using arrow keys, disable Legacy Diskette A:
Press F10 to save the changes and exit. The machine reboots and completes the configuration.

Method 2:

Open Program and Features, right-click VMware Tools, and select Change, Next, Select Modify
Select Volume Shadow Copy services support, click Entire feature will be unavailable, Click Next, Click Change, Click Finish