Linux swap partition is disabled after VMware Virtual Machine restore.

Problem

Linux swap partition is disabled after VMware Virtual Machine restore.

Error Message

Backup the Linux Virtual Machine with having swap partition.

When attempt Virtual Machine restore from this backup, linux swap partition is disabled.

For example, the Virtual Machine has swap partition as the following.

RHEL 6.x Guest

fstab ---
UUID=4eb4a4b8-403e-4975-a519-e746196eb85c swap swap defaults 0 0

# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda2 partition 1048568 0 -1

# blkid /dev/sda2
/dev/sda2: UUID="4eb4a4b8-403e-4975-a519-e746196eb85c" TYPE="swap"

After restoring this Virtual Machine,  this swap parition is disabled.

# swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority

Cause

The metadata area that UUID is stored in vmdk has been overwritten as NULL data.

Solution

This is working as designed. You will have to remove the check from the option "Exclude swap and paging files" to
avoid having to reconfigure the swap drive. 

Workaround:

1. Disable "Exclude swap and paging files" option in policy setting.

2. Reconfigure the swap partition with using mkswap command after VMware Virtual Machine restore.

 RHEL 6.x

 Check UUID for swap partition in fstab.

 UUID=4eb4a4b8-403e-4975-a519-e746196eb85c swap swap defaults 0 0

 Check swap partition from fdisk command.

 Setup swap partition.

 mkswap -U 4eb4a4b8-403e-4975-a519-e746196eb85c /dev/sda2

 Enable swapping.
 
 swapon /dev/sda2

 
 RHEL 5.x

 Check swap partition in fstab.

 Setup swap partition

 mkswap /dev/sda2

 Enable swapping

 swapon /dev/sda2