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

Follow these steps to resolve the boot failure:

1. 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:

• • Right-click the virtual machine in the vSphere Client and select Edit Settings.
  • Navigate to the VM Options tab and expand Boot Options.
  • Under Boot Options, change the firmware from BIOS to EFI and vice-versa

Note: If the option is greyed out, verify if the VM is using Hardware Version 20+ which enforces EFI.

2. Address potential .vmx file corruption by attaching the disk to a new virtual machine:

• • Click Add New Device and select Existing Hard Disk.
  • Browse to the affected virtual machine's folder and select the boot disk.
  • Power on the virtual machine.

3. If the steps above do not resolve the issue, the Guest OS or virtual disk is likely corrupted. Rebuild the virtual machine or restore from a known-good backup.