Failed to read file vmdk. Cannot allocate memory

#1

See below
thanks

#2

root@esx01:/vmfs/volumes/54c0459b-78dc8880-d0fc-1cc1de006bd8/verticalbackup] ./vertical backup jira.bob.io

Vertical Backup 1.1.5

This license is only valid for home and non-production use

Licensed to esxadmin; expires on 2018-11-16

Storage set to s3://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/esx-backup-bob

Listing all virtual machines Backing up jira.bob.io, id: 9, vmx path: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/jira.bob.io/jira.bob.io.vmx, guest os: debian8_64Guest

No previous backup found.

Listing existing chunks Virtual machine jira.bob.io is powered on

Removing all snapshots of jira.bob.io

Uploaded file /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/jira.bob.io/jira.bob.io.vmdk

Uploading file jira.bob.io-flat.vmdk

Failed to read file ‘/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/jira.bob.io/jira.bob.io-flat.vmdk’: Cannot allocate memory
Removing all snapshots of jira.bob.io

#3

Can you try the --no-chunk-listing option:

./vertical backup jira.bob.io --no-chunk-listing

This is to avoid listing the existing chunks on the storage to save some memory.

#4

I tried with --no-chunk-listing and its still the same error.

Uploading file jira.bob.io-flat.vmdk

Failed to read file ‘/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/jira.bob.io/jira.bob.io-flat.vmdk’: Cannot allocate memory

Removing all snapshots of jira.bob.io

I am using ESXi 6.5.0 Update 1 (Build 5969303)

is there any commands i can use to free up memory in the esxi host?
I tried a reboot and there was no change in the error.

thanks for the help

#5

Can you run this command on a different ssh terminal while Vertical Backup is running:

esxcfg-info | grep -A100 vertical  | grep MB

This will tell the memory usage and the maximum amount allowed by ESXi.

#6 
                                         |----Total Memory......743.00 MB
                                         |----Reserved Memory...2.00 MB
                                         |----Touched...........1.12 MB
                                         |----Total Minimum (base)1.22 MB
                                         |----Total Maximum (base)1.22 MB
                                         |----Effective Minimum.2.20 MB
                                         |----Target Allocation.1.22 MB
                                         |----Total Memory......781.00 MB
                                         |----Reserved Memory...40.00 MB
                                         |----COW...............27.55 MB
                                         |----Mapped............28.49 MB
                                         |----Touched...........28.43 MB
                                         |----Total Minimum (base)32.01 MB
                                         |----Total Maximum (base)32.01 MB
                                         |----Effective Minimum.40.11 MB
                                         |----Target Allocation.32.01 MB
#7

It doesn’t look like a out-of-memory issue.

I notice that a new snapshot wasn’t created before reading that vmdk file. Here is sample output on my ESXi:

[root@esxi55:/opt/vertical] ./vertical backup vm-test
Vertical Backup 1.1.5
This license is only valid for home and non-production use
Licensed to Acrosync LLC; expires on 2019-01-25
Storage set to sftp://gchen@192.168.1.125/vmstorage
Listing all virtual machines
Backing up vm-test, id: 17, vmx path: /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/vm-test/vm-test.vmx, guest os: ubuntu64Guest
Last backup at revision 4 found
Virtual machine vm-test is powered on
Removing all snapshots of vm-test
Creating a new virtual machine snapshot for vm-test
Uploaded file /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/vm-test/vm-test.vmdk
Uploading file vm-test-flat.vmdk
Uploaded file vm-test-flat.vmdk 114.03MB/s 00:02:23
Uploaded file vm-test.vmx
Uploaded file vm-test.vmxf
Backup vm-test@esxi55 at revision 5 has been successfully completed
Total 16391 chunks, 16385.21M bytes; 8 new, 6.00M bytes, 1.08M uploaded
Total backup time: 00:02:24
Removing all snapshots of vm-test

What is missing from your output is the line Creating a new virtual machine snapshot for....

Did you accidentally remove that line when pasting it here?

If a new snapshot isn’t created, then that vmdk file should not be readable, although I had no clue why a memory error was returned.