Error: Unable to upgrade a VM due to boot file issue (NVRAM)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• VM upgrade cannot be performed due to NVRAM size of the VM
• Trying to upgrade the Guest OS 
• Guest OS provided the analysis the boot size is stopping the upgrade due to the size of the NVRAM file

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.X
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.X

Cause

• NVRAM size of the VM

Resolution

1. Take a backup on the VM
2. Shut down the VM gracefully
3. SSH to the ESXi host holding the VM and navigate to the VM

   cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore/vm

4. Make new directory

   mkdir tmp

5. Move the file to this directory 

   mv test.nvram tmp

6. Boot the VM
7. The NVRAM should be recreated
8. Once you confirm the file has been recreated and everything is good with VM, delete the test.nvram from tmp