Unable to power on a VM after re-registering

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VM power on may fail with error  "This VM might be from an incomplete Storage vMotion migration. The source VM might still be registered in your vCenter Server inventory. Power on that VM instead. "

Upon powering on the VM from command line, you may see the error as below.

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on 1043
Powering on VM:
Power on failed: (vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault) {
   faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
   faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
      (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
         key = "msg.moduletable.powerOnFailed",
         arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
            (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
               key = "1",
               value = "Migrate"
            }
         ],
         message = "Module 'Migrate' power on failed. "
      },
      (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
         key = "msg.migrate.svm.incomplete",
         arg = <unset>,
         message = "This VM might be from an incomplete Storage vMotion migration. The source VM might still be registered in your vCenter Server inventory. Power on that VM instead. "
      },
      (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
         key = "msg.vmx.poweron.failed",
         arg = <unset>,
         message = "Failed to start the virtual machine."
      }
   ],
   reason = "Module 'Migrate' power on failed. "
   msg = "Module 'Migrate' power on failed. "

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.x

VMware ESXi 9.x

Cause

• This would occur when we have more than one folder for the same VM in the datastore and the VM is being registered and powered on from a path which has incomplete data for VM to power on.

• Incomplete data could be due to the incomplete storage vMotion or VM restoration where the tasks are either killed or failed to complete. 

• The events in the hostd.log and when trying to power on the VM from command line would show as below.

      },
      (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
         key = "msg.migrate.svm.incomplete",
         arg = <unset>,
         message = "This VM might be from an incomplete Storage vMotion migration. The source VM might still be registered in your vCenter Server inventory. Power on that VM instead. "

Resolution

If the VM has more than one folder on the datastore, please register the VM from appropriate path and try powering on the VM.