Modified NVRAM Settings Might Prevent Virtual Machine from Powering-On

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Why is my deployed virtual machine not able to boot its operating system?

Environment

VMware VirtualCenter 1.2.x
VMware VirtualCenter 1.3.x
VMware VirtualCenter 1.1.x
VMware VirtualCenter 1.0.x

Resolution

This problem can occur if the NVRAM file is not copied to a new location when you migrate, clone or deploy a virtual machine.

The NVRAM file contains information such as BIOS settings. It is not copied to the target host when a virtual machine is migrated, migrated with VMotion, cloned or deployed from a template.

Changing the boot sequence of the original virtual machine, for instance, modifies the NVRAM settings. Since the NVRAM file is not copied as part of the migration or cloning process, the destination virtual machine might receive a different boot sequence and consequently cannot find the disk with the boot partition.

If you have settings in NVRAM that are not default values, you need to manually copy the original NVRAM file to the target host.

1. Copy the NVRAM file to a temporary location before you perform the provisioning action on the virtual machine.
2. Perform the migration, cloning or deploying from a template.
3. Copy the saved NVRAM file to the new location after the migration, cloning or deployment completes.