"Failed to power on virtual machine. An encryption key is required. Click here for more details."

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• VM shows invalid status in vCenter 
• When powering on the VM from vCenter or Host UI, it fails with the below error

     A key with identifier 'Private Encryption Key' is required to unlock this virtual machine

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.x
• VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.x

Cause

• The virtual machine was migrated from a decommissioned host that had a distinct encryption policy. Since the original encryption configuration is no longer accessible, the current host cannot retrieve the necessary encryption keys, resulting in a failure to access or manage the encrypted VM.

Resolution

As observed in this situation, the VM failed to power on due to encryption on the vmx file. As such, we need to recreate vmx file and follow below mentioned steps:

• Log in to vCenter and navigate to the desired host or cluster. 
• Right-click and select "New Virtual Machine". 
• Choose "Create a new virtual machine" and click "Next". 
• Name the VM, choose the deployment location (e.g., host, cluster), and click "Next". 
• Configure compute resources (CPU, memory) and click "Next". 
• Once the VM is deployed, Click on Edit settings > Add > Existing Harddisk > Navigate to the datastore that has the vmdk > attach the vmdk disks 

 

Note: Recreating the VMX and attaching the disks will only work if the vmdk is not encrypted.