Virtual machine fails to power on or boot after being converted
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Virtual machine fails to power on or boot after being converted

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Article ID: 306626

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

You are experiencing these issues with a converted virtual machine:

  • Virtual machine console is black or blank with the cursor in the top left corner of the screen.
  • Virtual machine is not powering on or rebooting.
  • Virtual machine cannot be rebooted in safe mode.


Resolution

  1. Unregister the virtual machine from vCenter, by right-clicking the virtual machine and selecting Remove from Inventory or by executing this command as the root user:

    vmware-cmd –s unregister <vm_name>.vmx
  2. Open the .vmdk file of the virtual machine using a text editor such as notepad, vi or nano. Do not use Wordpad.
  3. If the adapterType setting in the .vmdk file is IDE, edit the setting to a SCSI adapter type, such as:

    ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
    or
    ddb.adapterType = "buslogic"
  4. Open the .vmx file of the virtual machine using a text editor such as notepad, vi, or nano. Do not use Wordpad.
  5. Choose the same controller type from Step 3 and edit the .vmx file to add these lines:

    scsi0.present = "true"
    scsi0.sharedBus = "none"
    scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
    scsi0:0.present = "true"
    scsi0:0.fileName = "<name of VM>.vmdk"
    scsi0:0.deviceType = "scsi-hardDisk"

    Note:
    Add these lines only for the primary disk of the virtual machine.
  6. Re-register the virtual machine to vCenter, by executing:

    vmware-cmd –s register <vm_name>.vmx
  7. In vCenter, add the existing virtual disks to the virtual machine.

    Note: Ensure that the controller is SCSI 0:0 is for the boot disk and SCSI 0:<#> (where # is 1- 15 ) for each additional disk.
  8. Change the permissions of the virtual machine's .vmx file, by executing:

    chmod 755 <vm_name>.vmx


Additional Information

For more information, see: