So I updated my home ESXi4 playbox to U1 last night. All VM's work fine except for my Windows7 32 VM.
If I start that one it will time out and say no config file was found(it is there). Once that happens, my entire ESXi4 box comes to a halt, all running VM's on it lock up, and I can not even browse my data store(local storage).
Wondering if this has been seen before?
I tried a convert of the VM, it fails saying it can not tell what hardware is there(again, points to config file).
I'd say delete the VM, start over. A VM should not cause the host to time out, regardless of the VM type or even if it's support. Data doesn't control programs.
It sounds like a glitch or something happened, rebuild the VM.
You could try removing the VM from the inventory (not deleting from disk), and create a new VM using the existing VM disk.
That should create a new VMX config file and as long as the virtual disk is intact, should sort things out.
Think of it as removing the hard drive from a machine with a blown motherboard and putting it into an identical machine.
I actually had just tried that and it did not work. Actually got the same issue, once it got to the place it freezes(happens on boot), get the config error and I can not browse the data store......
Hmm... that does sound quite broken then.
Any clues in the vmware.log files in the VM directory on the datastore (if you don't start the Windows VM)?
It sounds a bit like something may have locked the files and the lock isn't getting cleared.
log makes 0 sense to me.
just tried to build a brand new Windows 7 VM. During install(at the last two steps) it freezes. Can same error.
Error is Unable to connect to the MKS: Virtual Machine files does not exist. Again, datastore1 can not be seen when i go to Configuration/Storage and try to browse it.
And again, this makes all of the running VMs die, also.
this ONLY happens with Windows 7 VM, and only since i updated last night to U1. I will add that I have not tried a server 2008 R2 install yet. At this point, if no one knows what causes this, I am just blowing the entire ox up and starting over.
Shame, just finished ripping 400 CDs to the Windows 7 VM to use as a media server in my home network(via homegroup to an Asrock ION 330 media PC in my home theater). Because i decided to not even listen to my own advice I give my co-workers on a daily basis, I performed no back up before hand!
Doesn't mean you can add the vmdk to another VM. Try installing a new VM and then adding the "broken" vmdk to a running guest.