Error. A file access error occurred on the host or guest operating system

    • Summary:Description of and steps to resolve the issue when backup of a VMware virtual machine fails because of the file access error on the host or guest operating system.
    • 1 min read
    On this page

    Error message

    A file access error occurred on the host or guest operating system.

    Error description

    This error indicates that:

    • the Backup & Disaster Recovery appliance has issues communicating with the host of the virtual machine (VM) or with the datastore; or

    • the VM has no VMware Tools installed, or VMware Tools lacks access permissions.

    Steps to resolve

    First of all, run full backup of the affected VM manually:

    1. In the appliance Management Console, go to Clients › VMware.

    2. Select the affected VM.

    3. On the toolbar, click Manual Backup.

    4. In the open dialog box, select Full, and then click OK.

    If previous does not help, register the affected VM again:

    1. In the appliance Management Console, go to Clients › VMware.

    2. Right-click the affected VM, and then click Unregister.

    3. Click Activate configuration.

    4. Right-click the affected VM again, and then click Register.

    5. Click Activate configuration.

    6. Run backup of the affected VM manually.

    Also, check if the affected VM has the latest version of VMware Tools installed. If so, check if VMware Tools has all permissions required for backup.