Virtual machine fails to power on or boot after being converted

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

You are experiencing these issues with a converted virtual machine:

• Virtual machine console is black or blank with the cursor in the top left corner of the screen.
• Virtual machine is not powering on or rebooting.
• Virtual machine cannot be rebooted in safe mode.

Resolution

1. Unregister the virtual machine from vCenter, by right-clicking the virtual machine and selecting Remove from Inventory or by executing this command as the root user:
   
   vmware-cmd –s unregister <vm_name>.vmx
   
2. Open the .vmdk file of the virtual machine using a text editor such as notepad, vi or nano. Do not use Wordpad.
   
3. If the adapterType setting in the .vmdk file is IDE, edit the setting to a SCSI adapter type, such as:
   
   ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
   or
   ddb.adapterType = "buslogic"
   
4. Open the .vmx file of the virtual machine using a text editor such as notepad, vi, or nano. Do not use Wordpad.
5. Choose the same controller type from Step 3 and edit the .vmx file to add these lines:
   
   scsi0.present = "true"
   scsi0.sharedBus = "none"
   scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
   scsi0:0.present = "true"
   scsi0:0.fileName = "<name of VM>.vmdk"
   scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"
   
   Note: Add these lines only for the primary disk of the virtual machine.
   
6. Re-register the virtual machine to vCenter, by executing:
   
   vmware-cmd –s register <vm_name>.vmx
   
7. In vCenter, add the existing virtual disks to the virtual machine.
   
   Note: Ensure that the controller is SCSI 0:0 is for the boot disk and SCSI 0:<#> (where # is 1- 15 ) for each additional disk.
   
8. Change the permissions of the virtual machine's .vmx file, by executing:
   
   chmod 755 <vm_name>.vmx

Additional Information

For more information, see:

 

• Black screen after a P2V conversion of a Windows server using VMware Converter (1016613)