An error occurred while consolidating disks: msg.fileio.lock.(Can't consolidate VM snapshot)

1.  Tried clicking on consolidate -fail
2.  Tried creating and deleting snapshot -  succeeded, but didn't allow me to consolidate snapshot
3.  Tried creating and snapshot with memory state unticked -- same as above, no-go.
4.  Tried cloning the VM. The clone had consolidated disks, but didn't want the outage of switching VMs, plus the hassle of new mac address on the cloned VM with ghost vNIC issue.

5.  But then tried storage vMotioning the VM.  Bingo!  success!

This originating problem was caused by VADP backup.  Seems vSphere 5.5 handles snapshots differently, or maybe, as I read here.

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UPDATE: 13/11/2014
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overlooked two important facts here:

1) the old snapshots on your old disk are not cleaned up when you sVMotion to a new disk.
2) Trying to delete them from DataStore browser doesn't work.  Are these files still locked?  Shouldn't be as the .vmsd file is empty and the disks referenced as active by the VM is no longer the delta VMDK.  More to come.

I hope this helps someone avoid an outage for their VMs.

KC

NetApp vol copy of snapshot for vSphere

Using Data from a NetApp snapshot via vol copy

make sure the destination volume is not being used,

if mapped to VMware delete VMFS and unmap and rescan from vCenter

offline the volume

verify the snapshot needed with snap list command

vol copy -s start snapshot_wanted source_vol_with_snap dest_vol_alredy_offlined

online the destination volume and you'll see message from NetApp CLI warning that lun has been offlined as it is copy and therefore has duplicate information as the source:

Fri Jan 13 14:51:52 GMT [SnapVaultA: lun.newLocation.offline:warning]: LUN /vol/sv_lun_svcopy/sv1/lun96 has been

taken offline to prevent map conflicts after a copy or move operation.

go to FilerView and change the path and lun number of the lun for the dest. volume.

Now you can online the volume and map it out with the correct, non-duplicate, lun number.

rescan storage on vCenter

add Storage and choose "Assign a new signature" when adding dest. lun into vCenter.

find the VMFS on your dest. lun which will have it's old name but after prefix "snap-xxxxx" and rename it appropriately.

add the VMDK on the VMFS on the lun to your VM and you're laughing!