Changing the boot delay on a powered on Virtual Machine on ESXi 5.5 fails

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Changing the boot delay on a powered on Virtual Machine on ESXi 5.5 fails with the error:
  Error : The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered on)
• In /var/log/hostd.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time>[65280B70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] State Transition (VM_STATE_ON -> VM_STATE_RECONFIGURING)
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time>[65280B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Invoking interceptor:1-hbr
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time>[65280B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Done invoking interceptor:1-hbr
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time>[64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Enter VmConfig::Reconfigure
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Current VM Tracking state: disabled
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] VmConfig::Reconfigure : creating taskProgress
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 info 'Libs' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Vix: [659180 foundryHandles.c:1526]: Error VIX_E_FAIL in Vix_AddRefHandleImpl(): Add ref a destroyed/recycled handle=-1, file=(null), line=0.
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 info 'Libs' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Vix: [659180 foundryHandles.c:947]: Error VIX_E_FAIL in Vix_ReleaseHandleImpl(): Releasing a recycled or destroyed handle=-1, file=(null), line=0.
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Waiting on Start Vigor hot batch operation
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [641C1B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx'] Start Vigor hot batch operation successful
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [641C1B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx'] Signalling Start Vigor hot batch operation
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Completed Start Vigor hot batch operation
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Cannot hot set bios boot delay.
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Waiting on Abort Vigor hot-plug batch 423641701791
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [641C1B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx'] Abort Vigor hot-plug batch 423641701791 successful
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [641C1B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx'] Signalling Abort Vigor hot-plug batch 423641701791
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Completed Abort Vigor hot-plug batch 423641701791
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Reconfigure failed: vim.fault.InvalidPowerState
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 warning 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] Exception thrown during reconfigure: (vim.vm.ConfigSpec) {
  --> dynamicType = <unset>,
  --> changeVersion = "2015-10-29T04:18:28.381623Z",
  --> name = <unset>,
  --> preserveSwapOnPowerOff = <unset>,
  --> bootOptions = (vim.vm.BootOptions) {
  --> dynamicType = <unset>,
  --> bootDelay = 10,
  --> enterBIOSSetup = <unset>,
  --> bootRetryEnabled = <unset>,
  --> bootRetryDelay = <unset>,
  --> vim.fault.InvalidPowerState
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [64E80B70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/56304a42-aec51a6b-32e9-00505601adc8/psc01/psc01.vmx' opID=B6BD1C45-00002500 user=root] State Transition (VM_STATE_RECONFIGURING -> VM_STATE_ON)
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [63C40B70 verbose 'Hostsvc'] Received state change for VM '2'
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [63C40B70 info 'Guestsvc.GuestFileTransferImpl'] Entered VmPowerStateListener
  <YYYY-MM-DD><time> [63C40B70 info 'Guestsvc.GuestFileTransferImpl'] VmPowerStateListener succeeded</time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time></time>

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Resolution

This is a known issue in ESXi 5.5 and it is fixed in ESXi 5.5 P07. For more information see VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201504001 (2112672)

Additional Information

VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201504001
ESXi 5.5 上のパワーオン状態の仮想マシンで起動遅延時間を変更すると失敗する