Virtual Machine fails to load Guest OS with error "No Media"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Virtual machine powers on but is unable to boot up the Guest OS
• On the vm console entries similar to below are observer :

Attempting to start up from:
-> EFI Virtual disk (0.0) ... unsuccessful.
-> EFI Floppy ... unsuccessful.
-> EFI VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive (IDE 0:0) ... unsuccessful.
-> EFI Network.

Attempting to start up from:
-> EFI Virtual disk (0.0) ... No Media.
-> EFI Floppy ... No Media.
-> EFI VMware Virtual IDE CDROM Drive (IDE 0:0) ... No Media.
-> EFI Network ...

• On the the vmware.log of the virtual machine, entries similar to below are seen:

/vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<vm_name>/vmware.log

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0 - Guest: Status upon boot failure: No Media
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0 - Guest: EFI Shell inactive in default boot sequence.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0 - Guest: Status upon boot failure: unsuccessful
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0 - Msg Post: Warning
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0 - [msg. Backdoor. OsNotFound] No operating system was found.If you have an operating system
installation disc, you can insert the disc into the system's CD-ROM drive and restart the virtual machine.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In(05) vcpu-0
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.msZ In (05) vcpu-0

 

Environment

VMware vSphere 7.x , 8.x

Cause

Issue is caused as the VM is unable to detect the Guest OS properly on the boot drive, i.e scsi0:0 hard disk .This can be a result of :

• Unsupported firmware(bios/efi) by the Guest OS
• Corrupted vmx config file
• Hard disk corruption caused due to Storage or Guest OS issue

Resolution

To resolve the issue, please follow the below steps:

• In case the issue is caused due to unsupported firmware, change the firmware to what is supported by the Guest OS or recommended by the OS vendor:
  • Browse to the virtual machine in the vSphere Client inventory.
  • Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
  • Click the VM Options tab, and expand Boot Options.
  • Under Boot Options, change the firmware from BIOS to EFI and vice-versa
• To resolve vmx file corruption, select any other virtual machine or create a new vm and attach the existing OS drive on scsi 0:0 :
  • Click the Add New Device button.
  • Select Existing Hard Disk from the drop-down menu.
  • The Select File dialog box opens.
  • In the Select File, expand a datastore, select the affected virtual machine folder, and select the disk to add and proceed to power on

In case the above steps do not resolve the issue, that would indicate complete Guest OS corruption or Hard disk corruption. In this scenario the virtual machine has to be rebuilt or restored from backup.