Microsoft Windows-based virtual machine loses network connectivity with the error ''Your guest has entered a standby sleep state. Use the keyboard or mouse while grabbed to wake it".

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• A Windows virtual machine loses network connectivity.
• VMware Tools status on the virtual machine shows:
  
  

  Not Running

  
   
• In the virtual machine's Task and Event you see a message similar to:
  
  

  Your guest has entered a standby sleep state. Use the keyboard or mouse while grabbed to wake it

• The vmware.log for the virtual machine (located at /vmfs/volumes/<Datastore>/<Virtual Machine Directory>/ ) contains entries similar to:
  
  

  vcpu-0| Your guest has entered a standby sleep state. Use the keyboard or mouse while grabbed to wake it.
  vcpu-0| ---------------------------------------
  vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox timed out.
  vmx| GuestRpcSendTimedOut: message to toolbox timed out.
  vmx| GuestRpc: app toolbox's second ping timeout; assuming app is down

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the Microsoft operating system goes into sleep mode due to power management within the virtual machine and turns off all devices, including the networking card. You can only wake the virtual machine directly from a console session, from vCenter Server or the ESXi host it resides on.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, disable Power Management within the guest operating system.

 

For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet article Enable or disable power management setting in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.