Knowledge Base

Validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. These steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Do not skip a step.

1. Confirm that the virtual machine hardware version is compatible with the new host. For more information, see Virtual machine hardware versions (1003746).
   
   
2. Confirm that the virtual machine is compatible with the new host architecture. For more information, see Troubleshooting host architecture incompatibility (1003747).
   
   
3. Verify that all of the virtual machine's .vmx settings are valid on the new host. For more information, Validating a virtual machine's .vmx settings (1003748).
   
   
4. Confirm that the virtual machines are not powered on. In some cases, a virtual machine may be powered on, but may appear as powered off or orphaned/invalid in the vSphere Client. For more information, see Investigating if an ESX/ESXi virtual machine is powered on (1003737).
   
   Additionally, there are times when one method of powering on a virtual machine does not work but another method does. For more information, see Methods of powering on an ESX/ESXi virtual machine (1003738).
   
   Note: If you perform a corrective action in any of the following steps, attempt powering on the virtual machine again.
   
   
5. Confirm that you are trying to power on the correct virtual machine. You may be powering on a virtual machine that does not actually correspond to the virtual machine that you are trying to work with. For more information, see Identifying the location of virtual machine files (1006737).
   
   
6. Confirm that there are sufficient permissions for you to power on the virtual machine. Formoreinformation, see Investigating power on permissions for ESX/ESXi virtual machines (1003739).
   
   
7. Confirm that the virtual machine is valid. For more information, see Determining if a virtual machine is orphaned (1003742).
   
   
8. Confirm that there is no virtual machine file corruption. For more information, see Verifying ESX/ESXi virtual machine file integrity (1003743).
   
   
9. Confirm that there are sufficient resources. For more information, see Investigating ESX/ESXi virtual machine resources (1003745).
   
   
10. Check the integrity of any snapshots. For more information, see Verifying the integrity of the parent disks for an ESX virtual machine (1003759).
    
    
11. In some cases, vCenter Server and ESX hosts get to a state where they do not report the state of a virtual machines properly and, therefore, do not report the correct result of vMotion. To resolve this you may have to restart the management agents on ESXi/ESX host and the VMware vCenter Server service on vCenter Server. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490) and Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).
    

Note: If your problem still exists after trying the steps in this article:

• Gather the VMware Support Script Data. For more information, see Collecting Diagnostic Information in a VMware Virtual Infrastructure Environment (1003689).
• File a support request with VMware Support and note this KB Article ID (1003647) in the problem description. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.