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Troubleshooting a failure to deploy or undeploy a virtual machine in VMware vCenter Lab Manager

Symptoms

Cannot add a new ESX host to the VMware vCenter Lab Manager environment
Problems upgrading or reinstalling the VMware vCenter Lab Manager agent
Cannot deploy a virtual machine
Cannot undeploy a virtual machine
Deploy using unfenced mode fails
Virtual machines show as orphaned in vCenter Server
Virtual machines show as orphaned after a VMware High Availability (VMware HA) host failure occurs
Virtual machines show as orphaned after an ESX host comes out of maintenance mode
Virtual machines showing as orphaned after a failed DRS migration
The virtual machine does not power on because of missing or locked files
A virtual machine has not successfully removed the .vswp file or locks on files in the virtual machine directory when it was shut down cannot be powered on
Deploy using fenced mode fails
You may experience these errors:
- Could not power VM, no swap file, failed to power on VM
- VMControl error -11: No such virtual machine
- A general system error occurred. The system returned on error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted .
- unknown power state
- Not Enough Managed Server Capacity (Memory)
- Could not find a valid Managed Server due to:
- Insufficient memory or machine slots. This deployment requires <###> MB memory
- Not Enough Managed Server Capacity (Memory/Slots)
- Could not find a valid Managed Server due to:
- Insufficient slots. This deployment requires <###> MB memory and <###> slots
- Not attempting deployment on resource pool
- CPU/memory information is not available
- Error importing VR

Purpose

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting issues with deploying or undeploying virtual machines.

The steps outlined in this article eliminate configuration and environmental issues.

Resolution

Validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions, or a link to a document, for validation and corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.

Ensure that the virtual machine storage is connected. For more information, see Verifying that ESX virtual machine storage is accessible (1003751).
Check that the storage is working properly. For more information, see Identifying shared storage issues with ESX 3.x (1003659).
Verify that the storage is attached in Lab Manager:
1. Click Servers in the navigation pane of Lab Manager.
2. Hover over the managed server.
3. Click Properties.
4. If it is not selected, choose to attach storage.
Determine if there is enough memory available for deployment. For more information, see Checking for insufficient memory resources (1006459).
Determine if there are enough free slots available for deployment. For more information, see Checking for insufficient slots (1006468).
Confirm that the correct version of the agent is installed and running. For more information, see Troubleshooting the Lab Manager Agent and checking the installed version (1006706).
Verify network connectivity and DNS name resolution from the ESX host to the Lab Manager server. For more information, see Testing network connectivity with the ping command (1003486) and ESX/ESXi hosts have intermittent or no network connectivity (1004109).
Verify that the virtual machine associated with the template you are attempting to deploy or undeploy is present in a datastore connected to the target ESX host.
Ensure that the VT technology setting on the target ESX host is compatible with the template you are trying to deploy. For more information, see Enabling VT on Intel EM64T Systems for ESX Server 3 (3282933).
Ensure that the virtual machine associated with the template you are trying to deploy is registered on the ESX host. For more information, see Determining if a virtual machine is orphaned (1003742).
Verify that none of the files on the virtual machine are locked or in use. For more information, see Virtual machine does not power on because of missing or locked files (10051).
Confirm that Lab Manager and the ESX host are not out of sync:
1. If a virtual machine is showing as deployed in Lab Manager but it cannot be powered on, force undeploy the virtual machine.
2. If a virtual machine exists in vCenter Server but is not showing as deployed in Lab Manager, right-click it and choose Remove.
3. Restart mgmt-vmware and vsla-agent. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX Server (1003490).
If Lab Manager is authenticating to vCenter Server with a domain user account, verify that the user account is defined as an Administrator at the host and cluster level. If it is not:
1. Delete the user.
2. Add the user back again at the host and cluster level.
3. Restart the vsla service on the Lab Manager server.
  
  Note: For more information, see the Lab Manager documentation.

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 for VMware products (1008524).
File a support request with VMware Support and note this KB Article ID in the problem description. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request .

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