Virtual Machine entering into suspended state

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The VM is frequently entering into suspended state automatically
• VM's vmware.log contains below information :

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.977Z In(05) vmx - MStat: Creating Stat vm.suspendTime
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.178Z In(05) vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PM Resuming from suspend type 0x4, chipset.onlineStandby 0
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:03.515Z In(05) vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PM Suspending... (to S1 (0x4))
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:03.521Z In(05) vmx - SUSPEND: Start suspend (flags=0)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:19.199Z In(05) vcpu-0 - SUSPEND: Completed suspend: 'Operation completed successfully' (0)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:19.367Z In(05) vmx - Transitioned vmx/execState/val to suspended

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.896Z In(05) vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PMAccessPM got ACPI S1 request
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.896Z In(05) vcpu-0 - PIIX4: PM Suspending... (to S1 (0x4))
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.899Z In(05) vmx - SUSPEND: Start suspend (flags=0)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.915Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Destroying virtual dev for scsi0:0 vscsi=###########
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.915Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VMMon_VSCSIStopVports: No such target on adapter
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.915Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Destroying virtual dev for scsi0:1 vscsi=###########
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.915Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VMMon_VSCSIStopVports: No such target on adapter
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.919Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Closing all the disks of the VM.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the VM's Power Management standby response is set to "Suspend the virtual machine". With this configuration when the Guest OS is placed on standby, the VM will enter into suspended state which is an expected behavior.

Resolution

• Shutdown the virtual machine by right-clicking the virtual machine -> Power -> Shut Down Guest OS.
• Right-click on the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
• Click VM Options and expand Power Management.
• In the Standby response section, select the standby response to “Put the guest OS into standby mode and leave the virtual machine powered on” to avoid the VM suspension.

Additional Information

Refer to the below docs for more information on VM Power Management -
Manage Power Management Settings for a Virtual Machine 

The following entry is added to the vmx file for the VM if the power management standby response is set to "Suspend the virtual machine":

chipset.onlineStandby = "FALSE"