Knowledge Base

The VMware Knowledge Base provides support solutions, error messages and troubleshooting guides

Search the VMware Knowledge Base (KB)

View by Article ID

Common ESX/ESXi virtual machine configuration issues which can cause virtual machines to become unresponsive

Purpose

A virtual machine running on an ESX/ESXi host can encounter issues that prevent it from being able to function and become unresponsive. This may stem from issues with the configuration of the virtual hardware of the virtual machine. This article describes some common virtual machine configuration issues which can lead to a virtual machine becoming unresponsive. This is in no way an exhaustive list of issues that may affect your virtual machine, but it does provide a useful starting point.

For more general troubleshooting of unresponsive virtual machines on ESX/ESXi, see Troubleshooting a virtual machine that has stopped responding (1007819).

Resolution

Virtual machines can be configured with limits and shares for common resources such as CPU and memory. If these limits are set aggressively low, a virtual machine may be starved for those resources and be unable to perform meaningful work. For more information, see the Resource Management Guide for your version of ESX/ESXi Server or VirtualCenter/vCenter Server.
Virtual machines can share access to physical CD-ROM devices on the host server. If this device is unavailable, or attempts to access it result in read errors (such as from a scratch disk, or a slow connection to a remote ISO), an accessing virtual machine may be blocked while waiting for a response from the device. For more information on specific examples, see:
A virtual machine is expected to become stunned during some checkpointing operations, such as during a vMotion or Snapshot operation. Determine whether the issue correlates to a task or other operation performed on the virtual machine. For more information, see Virtual machine stops responding during backup (1002025) and Why snapshot removal can hang a virtual machine for a long time (1002836).
During startup, a virtual machine may pause at 95% with a question that must be answered prior to startup completing. For more information, see How to answer a virtual machine related question from command line (1026835).

Request a Product Feature

To request a new product feature or to provide feedback on a VMware product, please visit the Request a Product Feature page.

Feedback

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5

Actions

Bookmark Document

Did this article help you?
This article resolved my issue. This article did not resolve my issue. This article helped but additional information was required to resolve my issue.
What can we do to improve this information? (4000 or fewer characters)