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eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

ESX 3.02 host, guests will not power on.

I just installed a new 3.02 host and patched it with all current patches using vmts patch manager. I'm now trying to bring the first guest OS online in the host, OS is Win 2k3 x64 but I get the same error with a brand new guest as well.

"A general system error occured. The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted."

I'm licensed on the same server as the rest of my esx farm but none of my guest systems will power up when they are homed to this host.

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eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

I'm also not getting any log file generated by the guests on this system fwiw.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

not getting ANY log file generated? That smells very much like a disk on the host which has gone read only.

Have you logged into the console and tried writing to disk?

Eg. in your home folder what happens if you try:

touch is_this_writable.txt

That should create a file "is_this_writable.txt" in your home folder. If that doesn't work try once more as root (although it should have worked for the normal user as well)

If you can't do that... the disk is "broken" and you'll at least need to run fsck when the disk isn't mounted.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry, I am getting a log file, I just wasn't looking in the right spot.

Here's what's being logged when the power-on fails:

[<date/timestamp> 'BaseLibs' 13966256 warning] The VMX process died prematurely

[<date/timestamp> 'BaseLibs' 13966256 warning] VMHSLaunchVM failed: Failed to launch peer process

[<date/timestamp> 'Vmsvc' 3076452480 error] Failed to do Power Op: Error: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

It then logs a Failed operation and resets the power state handler.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

What type of storage are you using? Local, iSCSI, SAN, NFS?

Are you able to create a new VM on the ESX server?

Does the following command produce an error? vmware-cmd -l

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eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

I can create new vms on the host with the same error when I try to power them on.

No error when I run vmware-cmd -l

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

What type of storage are you using for the VM's? Local, iSCSI, SAN, NFS?

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eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry, local storage.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Are there any errors in /var/log/vmkernel ?

You might be better off just re-installing ESX and then check if VM's will power on. Then apply the patches and try once more.

eammonc
Contributor
Contributor

Oddly enough, all it took was a restart of the host. I thought I had set the patch manager to restart after it finished patching but apparently I didn't.

Thanks for all the help.

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