Autostart of virtual machines fails on hosts licensed with a Standalone Edition license key

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Autostart fails
• If you configure virtual machines on an ESX or ESXi host to start automatically upon reboot and license your server with a Standalone Edition serial key, the virtual machines do not power on as expected.
  
  Note: The virtual machines automatically power on if the host is licensed via Evaluation Mode, a license server, or a host license file.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Cause

Virtual machines do not power on if Autostart tries to power on the virtual machines before the license key is loaded into the system.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in:

• ESX 3.5 Update 3. For more information about this version, see the ESX 3.5 Update 3 Release Notes
• ESXi 3.5 Update 3. For more information about this version, see the ESXi 3.5 Update 3 Release Notes
• ESXi 5.0 Update 2. For more information about this version, see the ESXi 5.0 Update 2 Release Notes

To avoid this issue until you upgrade to ESX 3.5 Update 3, ESXi 3.5 Update 3 or ESXi 5.0 Update 2, use a License server (download an amended license file from the VMware Store and add to your license server) or Evaluation mode.

Additional Information

VirtualCenter allows you to control the automatic startup/shutdown of virtual machines through Configuration > Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown.