VMware Cloud Community
BPL5000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Unable to start VMs

We have 2 esx servers and 1 SAN. I brought down all 3 because our SAN needed to be moved. When I brought everything back up, all looked fine. I could browse the SAN from the esx servers and see vmdk files, etc. The only problem is, when I go to start a VM, it just says "In Progress" and never starts. I tried to cancel the Power On task, but the option is grayed out. The Tasks and Events log does not show any errors... it just shows the VM in the status of being powered on. Any ideas why I can't power on my VMs? I tried a second VM, but the same problem happen again.

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Sangokan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Try this:

service vmware-vpxa stop

service mgmt-vmware restart

service vmware vpxa start

Log to the ESX server with putty and type:

ps -ef | grep VM_name

You can try to kill the process if there is one of the VMs being powered on with something like

kill 9 Process_pid

If you are using virtual center you can also try to restart the VC service.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
sbeaver
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Something has changed during the move. I would restart all ESX server and then un-register and re-register the VM's before you try to start any more.

Steve Beaver
VMware Communities User Moderator
VMware vExpert 2009 - 2020
VMware NSX vExpert - 2019 - 2020
====
Co-Author of "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center"
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach
Come check out my blog: [www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog|http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/]
Come follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/sbeaver

**The Cloud is a journey, not a project.**
Reply
0 Kudos
BPL5000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I tried restarting the host within the client and it just sat there saying "In Progress". I then restarting it thru Putty and it still lists "Reboot Host" for the active tasks of that host. On the summary page of this host, now there are no commands listed. It's as if the host is being shutdown so there is nothing available.

I think it's something simple that's causing the problem.

Reply
0 Kudos
RParker
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Are you running at the latest 3.02 version? Also do you have physical access to the host? Did you try running the command at the console (not remote)?

You may need to shut down some services manually, and doing this remote may disconnect you.

Reply
0 Kudos
shamim-a
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

When the same problem had occured to me, i noticed that virtual centre was giving me wrong info, but virtual machine was powered on and running. After some time everything became OK.

Shamim

Reply
0 Kudos
Sangokan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Try this:

service vmware-vpxa stop

service mgmt-vmware restart

service vmware vpxa start

Log to the ESX server with putty and type:

ps -ef | grep VM_name

You can try to kill the process if there is one of the VMs being powered on with something like

kill 9 Process_pid

If you are using virtual center you can also try to restart the VC service.

Reply
0 Kudos
RJacob
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

I had the same thing happen to me. I found one of my ESX Host had some things locked... and once it was rebooted, it was fine.

I also found that if I connected directly to the ESX host with VI... instead of connecting to VC, I could start and stop VMs just fine.

I also upgraded to 3.0.2, and seems to have fixed it from happening again.

Reply
0 Kudos