Virtual machine deployment in VCF Automation (VCFA) fails with operating system not found error

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When deploying virtual machines (VMs) through VCF Automation (VCFA), the deployment may complete, but the VM fails to boot, displaying an "Operating System not found" error in the remote console.

This indicates that the VM is unable to correctly mount or recognize the boot disk during its initial power-on sequence.

Environment

VCF Automation 9.x

vCenter Server 9.x

Cause

The source VM template in the vCenter environment is invalid or misconfigured. Common factors include:

• The template lacks VMware Tools, which provides the drivers required for virtual hardware communication with the Guest OS.
• The guest operating system was not verified to boot correctly on the base VM before being converted to a template.
• The template is non-functional at the hypervisor level, making it ineligible for successful automation through VCFA.

Resolution

A successful vCenter-level deployment is a mandatory prerequisite for automation via VCF Automation (VCFA). To resolve this issue, verify and validate your source template directly within vCenter Server before using it in the automation platform.

Testing the template in vCenter isolates the issue to the source image rather than the VCFA platform. If you are able to successfully create and boot a VM in vCenter using the template, it should then function correctly within VCFA. Ensure that VMware Tools is installed and that the OS boots to a login state during your manual vCenter verification.