A virtual machine fails to power on with the error: Unsupported and/or invalid disk type

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Cannot power on the virtual machine
Powering on the virtual machine fails
You see the error:

Unsupported and/or invalid disk type
In the Events tab on the ESXi hosts or vCenter Server, you see the error:

Module DevicePowerOn power on failed.
Unable to create virtual SCSI device for scsi0:0, '/vmfs/volumes/datastorename/VirtualMachineHome/VirtualMachineDisk.vmdk'
Failed to open disk scsi0:0: Unsupported and/or invalid disk type 7. Did you forget to import the disk first?

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Cause

This issue occurs if a virtual machine that is meant for VMware Hosted products such as VMware Workstation, VMware Player or VMware Fusion is powered-on on an ESX/ESXi host.

The underlying format used to store virtual machines on VMware Hosted products differs from the format used to store virtual machines on ESX/ESXi hosts.

Resolution

To import a virtual machine stored on a VMware Hosted product to an ESX/ESXi host, the virtual machine should first be converted using VMware vCenter Converter 6.3. For more information on conversion, see the VMware vCenter Converter documentation .

Alternatively, to work around this issue in ESXi 5.0 and earlier versions, reformat the VMDK using the vmkfstools command, detach the currently attached VMDK from the virtual machine and then reattach it:

Connect to the ESX/ESXi host via SSH.
Run this command:

vmkfstools -i HostedVirtualDisk ESXVirtualDisk

Where HostedVirtualDisk is the path to the vmdk on the host and ESXVirtualDisk is the vmdk to be output by the command.

For example:

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore/new_virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine.vmdk
Detach the currently attached VMDK from the virtual machine:
1. In the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
2. Select the hard disk.
3. Click Remove.
4. Select the Remove from virtual machine option.
5. Click OK.
Reattach the newly formatted VMDK from Step 2:
1. In the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
2. Click Add.
3. Select the hard disk.
4. Click Next.
5. Select the Use an existing virtual disk option.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Browse and locate the new VMDK created in Step 2.
8. Click Next.
9. Click Next.
10. Click Finish to close the Add Hardware window.
11. Click OK to close the Virtual Machine properties window.
Power on the virtual machine.

For importing the virtual disk files in ESX 5.1 hosts, see Powering on a virtual machine on an upgraded host fails with the error: File [VMFS volume] VM-name/VM-name.vmdk was not found (2036572).

Note: To access the command line on an ESXi host, you must enable SSH service. For more information, see Enable Access to ESXi Shell

Additional Information

Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.x, and ESXi 6.x
Failed to power on virtual machine
Powering on a virtual machine on an upgraded host fails with the error: File [VMFS volume] VM-name/VM-name.vmdk was not found
Falha de inicialização da máquina virtual com o erro: tipo de disco inválido e/ou incompatível
El encendido de una máquina virtual falla y aparece el error: Tipo de disco no compatible y/o inválido
虚拟机无法打开电源，并显示错误：磁盘类型不受支持且/或无效
仮想マシンが次のエラーでパワーオンに失敗する：サポートされていないか無効なディスクタイプ (Unsupported and/or invalid disk type)