Resolving VMware Backup Warning: “Creating a crash-consistent snapshot instead of application-consistent snapshot because VMware Tools are not installed”

Resolving VMware Backup Warning: “Creating a crash-consistent snapshot instead of application-consistent snapshot because VMware Tools are not installed”

Issue

During backup operations, the following warning may appear:
Warning
Activity 'Creating application-consistent (VSS) hypervisor snapshot' succeeded with the following warning:
'Creating a crash-consistent snapshot of virtual machine
'VM NAME'
instead of an application-consistent snapshot because VMware Tools are not installed.'

Cause

This warning occurs because VMware Tools (or Open VM Tools for Linux) are not installed or running inside the virtual machine.

Without VMware Tools:

  • VMware cannot coordinate application-aware snapshots.
  • The backup system creates only crash-consistent snapshots.
  • File systems and applications may not fully flush pending writes before the snapshot.

Impact

The backup will still complete successfully; however:

  • Application consistency is not guaranteed.
  • Databases or running applications may require recovery during restore.
  • Backup integrity for transactional applications may be affected.

Resolution

Install and enable VMware Tools (Open VM Tools) inside the Linux virtual machine.

Installation Steps for CentOS / RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux

Step 1 — Install Open VM Tools

Using YUM

sudo yum install -y open-vm-tools

Using DNF (Newer OS Versions)

sudo dnf install -y open-vm-tools
Step 2 — Enable and Start VMware Tools Service
sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd
sudo systemctl start vmtoolsd
Step 3 — Verify Service Status
systemctl status vmtoolsd
Expected output: Service status should display as 
Step 4 — Verify VMware Tools Version
vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
Step 5 — Reboot the Server 
Note: Few of the VM not required the restart
sudo reboot
Ubuntu / Debian Installation (Reference)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y open-vm-tools
sudo systemctl enable open-vm-tools
sudo systemctl start open-vm-tools
sudo systemctl status open-vm-tools









    

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