The Power On alarm is not triggered when the virtual machine is powered on

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The new alarm created to trigger when the virtual machine is powered on fails to trigger
• The Power Off alarm triggers successfully

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vCenter Server 9.x

 

Resolution

This issue occurs when Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) is enabled on the cluster. When DRS is enabled, you must change the trigger event to DRS VM powered on because DRS manages initial placement of the virtual machines.

 

To change the trigger event:

1. Right-click the alarm and click Edit Settings.
2. Click the Triggers tab.
3. Double-click the VM Powered on event.
4. In the dropdown, change the event to DRS VM powered on.
5. Click OK.

Additional Information

Issue: "VM restart or VM reboot" alarm definitions are not available on vCenter Server. 

As a workaround: 

• Create the alarm with Definition "VM starting" for the target VM.

Refer to this KB as a reference to set up alarm for VM on vCenter server.