Virtual machine cloning is a popular feature in VMWare environments. Whether it is to create a development system, to provide another VM with the same configuration or to migrate to a new hardware infrastructure, VMWare administrators use this functionality frequently and regularly.
However, there are a few things to bear in mind, especially if the clone is created in a VMWare cluster protected by Rubrik. This is because the inheritance of backup policies means that clones are automatically assigned to an SLA and ideally protected directly during the next backup window. Depending on how the VM was cloned, however, this can lead to an error that can be easily rectified with the following instructions.
For our scenario, we have cloned an already functioning VM in order to provide it with a virus for testing purposes.
Problem
The cloned VM could not be saved by Rubrik.
The error always appeared:
- Error code
RBK92010002 - What happened?
Internal error RBK92010002 (Vmware.UnableFetchDiskData). Incident 2ea6563d-27f4-4e4b-b7eb-b1f643f7621d - Possible cause
Could not fetch snapshot disk data. Error message: GetVMDKMetadataResponse: err=16052, err_str=The specified key is not found in the disk database(err=16052)
Solution
The problem was that there were some fields without parameters in the .vmdk file of the VM.
These had to be commented out.
Procedure
Log on to the ESXi host via the GUI.
Then click on Host -> Actions -> Services -> Enable Secure Shell (SSH) so that you can connect to it via SSH or WinSCP.
In the .vmdk file from the VM, some fields were without parameters. Comment out these fields with # and save the file.
.vmdk-Datei
# The Disk Data Base #DDB ddb.adapterType = "buslogic" #ddb.comment = "" ddb.deletable = "true"
After successfully editing the .vmdk file, restart the VM.
Then make a backup of the VM and deactivate SSH access in the ESXi host again.
Further sources
Since Rubrik hides the knowledge base articles behind the support login, the login is necessary:
