Cannot power on an ESX/ESXi virtual machine
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Cannot power on an ESX/ESXi virtual machine

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Article ID: 308549

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Updated On:

Products

VMware VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting being unable to power on a virtual machine that has been migrated to an ESX host. It helps you eliminate common causes for your problem by verifying that the virtual machine was migrated correctly and is healthy, that there are sufficient resources and permissions to power it on, and that it is compatible with the new host.
Note: In this article, a "migration" includes having migrated a virtual machine from one ESX host to another in vCenter Server, having manually copied or restored a virtual machine to an ESX host, and having used VMware Converter to end up with a virtual machine on an ESX host.


Symptoms:
  • You cannot power on a virtual machine
  • The Power on button is grayed out
  • You receive one or more of the following errors:
    • Your host's BIOS does not have valid NUMA information. Please update the host's BIOS or associate the virtual machine with the processors in a single NUMA node (CEC).
    • Error connecting: You need execute access in order to connect with the VMware console. Access denied for config file


Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Lab Manager 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x

Resolution

Validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. These steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Do not skip a step.

  1. Confirm that the virtual machine hardware version is compatible with the new host. For more information, see Virtual machine hardware versions (1003746).

  2. Confirm that the virtual machine is compatible with the new host architecture. For more information, see Troubleshooting host architecture incompatibility (1003747).

  3. Verify that all of the virtual machine's .vmx settings are valid on the new host. For more information, see Validating the .vmx settings of a virtual machine (1003748).

  4. Confirm that the virtual machines are not powered on. In some cases, a virtual machine may be powered on, but may appear as powered off or orphaned/invalid in the vSphere Client. For more information, see Determine the power status of a virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi host (1003737).

    Additionally, there are times when one method of powering on a virtual machine does not work but another method does. For more information, see Powering on an ESX/ESXi host's virtual machine (1003738).

    Note: If you perform a corrective action in any of the following steps, attempt powering on the virtual machine again.

  5. Confirm that you are trying to power on the correct virtual machine. You may be powering on a virtual machine that does not actually correspond to the virtual machine that you are trying to work with. For more information, see Identifying the location of virtual machine files in a vSphere environment (1006737).

  6. Confirm that there are sufficient permissions for you to power on the virtual machine. For more information, see Investigating power on permissions for ESX/ESXi virtual machines (1003739).

  7. Confirm that the virtual machine is valid. For more information, see Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned in vCenter Server (1003742).

  8. Confirm that there is no virtual machine file corruption. For more information, see Verifying ESX/ESXi virtual machine file integrity (1003743).

  9. Confirm that there are sufficient resources. For more information, see Investigating ESX/ESXi virtual machine resources (1003745).

  10. Check the integrity of any snapshots. For more information, see Verifying the integrity of the parent disks for an ESX/ESXi virtual machine (1003759).

  11. In some cases, vCenter Server and ESX hosts get to a state where they do not report the state of a virtual machines properly and, therefore, do not report the correct result of vMotion. To resolve this you may have to restart the management agents on ESXi/ESX host and the VMware vCenter Server service on vCenter Server. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490) and Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).

Note: If your problem still exists after trying the steps in this article:



Additional Information

Restarting the Management agents in ESXi
Collecting diagnostic information in a VMware Virtual Infrastructure Environment
Determine the power status of a virtual machine on an ESX or ESXi host
Powering on an ESX/ESXi host's virtual machine
Investigating power on permissions for ESX/ESXi virtual machines
Virtual machines appear as invalid or orphaned in vCenter Server
Verifying ESX/ESXi virtual machine file integrity
Investigating ESX/ESXi virtual machine resources
Virtual machine hardware versions
Troubleshooting host architecture incompatibility
Validating the .vmx settings of a virtual machine
Verifying the integrity of the parent disks for an ESX/ESXi virtual machine
How to stop, start, or restart vCenter Server services
Identifying the location of virtual machine files in a vSphere environment

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