vSAN Error “Cannot Complete File Creation Operation” – How to Fix?

If you’re doing your daily backup to the target backup device but your vSAN file copy is failing, you’re probably going to need to create the backup file with the correct information for a virtual SAN backup. It will be critical that you don’t overwrite the information in the target backup and instead add the correct information to the destination backup. Once you’ve created the backup and copied it to the correct target, you’ll see a list of files on the destination backup device that should be marked for exclusion.

There are three ways to do this:

1. Recover the backed-up vSAN VM backup file;
2. Create a new vSAN backup file manually;
3. Retrieve the backed-up vSAN VM backup file.

Let’s dive deep into each of the options so that you know what it takes to fix the issue.

Table of contents:

• Option 1 – Recovering the backed-up vSAN VM backup file
• Option 2 – Create a new vSAN backup file manually
• Option 3 – Retrieve the backed-up vSAN VM backup file
• Final Say!

Option 1 – Recovering the backed-up vSAN VM backup file

This option is only possible if you are using vSAN backup or vSAN Recovery. And you will hardly be able to restore a backup file from the default backup location. This can only be performed if the vSAN Backup Configuration has been changed in the Recovery tab. This option is only available for vSAN backup operations. 

vSAN Recover can only be used with a vSAN Recovery operation. The vSAN backup process creates a file that is stored in the backup location. This file will then be used to recover the virtual machines during recovery. So if you’ve accidentally backed up the wrong vSAN VM file, you can retrieve the file from the source storage device using the vSAN client for Windows. And here is what it takes to perform the operation:

• Locate the backup of your vSAN VM file;
• In the source location, find the path that stores your backup VM file;
• If you don’t know where it was stored, check your log files;
• Select the backup file you want to recover;
• Choose the option to Recover.

Once your file is recovered, simply add it to your vSAN storage pool and create the rest of your backup file manually as usual.

Option 2 – Create a new vSAN backup file manually

If you’ve backed up the wrong vSAN VM file and the backup is actually saved in the correct location, you can create a new vSAN backup file manually. Note that you’ll need to have root (Superuser) permissions to create a vSAN backup file.

• Log into your ESXi host (it must be logged in as root/Superuser);
• Open the vSphere Client interface and connect to your ESXi host;
• Open the File menu and select File > New… to open the Create New File dialog;
• Navigate to the vSAN data directory and browse the directories;
• Locate the file that contains your VM backup;
• Navigate to the “backup” folder;
• Select the folder that contains your backup file;
• Click the “Browse” button to the right of the folder name;
• Navigate to the destination file you want to use and select it;
• Click the “Ok” button.

The Backup job should start to prepare the backup file, and once complete, you should see the file in your vSAN pool (it will be called “Backup_<vsan-VM-name>_<Time>”).

Option 3 – Retrieve the backed-up vSAN VM backup file

Option 2 is much easier. But if you’re unsure if you’ve created the backup file, you can retrieve the backed-up file using the vSAN client for Windows. For that, you will need to follow the below:

• Open your vSAN client for Windows;
• Navigate to the vSAN data directory on your vSAN storage appliance and browse the directories;
• Navigate to the directory with your backed-up file;
• Find the file you want and select it;
• Click the “Open” button to confirm;
• The backup job should start to recover your backed-up file.

Final Say!

You may be sometimes faced with a problem wherein some vSAN hosts are unable to complete the file creation operation. The “Cannot complete file creation operation” error is seen in log files, and it can easily be fixed if you know what to do. There are a few common situations that can lead to this error. One of the cases is when there are multiple vSAN hosts in the data center, each hosting a vSAN cluster, and when the data center fails to get all the HA pairs in place. In some cases, there can be a delay in the creation of HA pairs while other hosts are already active. This can lead to the hosts seeing two different vSAN clusters and hence failing the creation of a file. Luckily, this all can be fixed if you recover the backed-up vSAN file, create a new backup file, or retrieve the backed-up vSAN VM backup file. Choose an option that works best for you.