VM crashes on restart, but loads fine if powered off/on.

[EshuunDara]

I've got a Windows 2003 VM that continually reboots if you restart it.  If you shut it down, then turn it on again, it boots up just fine.  I'd like the system to automatically reboot after installing updates, but it's just not working.  The windows logs don't indicate a problem at all -- just that the system was shutdown, and then that it was turned on again.

All my other VMs are working fine, so I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to look for.  The windows logs aren't helping, the other VMs on the same server appear to be fine, as are all the VMs on the same datastore...  VMware tools is up to date.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Troy_Clavell]

a couple things... Check the boot order of the guests BIOS, just to ensure nothing looks out of the ordinary.  Also, you have SP2 installed, any other missing updates?

Maybe run a chkdsk and defrag as well

What is different on the OS side from the guest that continually reboots to other similar guests that don't?

[EshuunDara]

All service packs and updates are installed.  There isn't anything different on the OS side of things as far as I know; there is some specialty software on it, but none of it loads until after the system is started, and I'm not getting that far.  Chkdsk is clean; not inclined to do a defrag as this is a thin provisioned volume.

I'll check the BIOS boot order, but believe it should be correct since it loads just fine after a cold boot.

[Troy_Clavell]

does this VM exhibit the same behavior on all ESX Hosts?  Maybe try powering off the guest, create a new VM, and use existing disk from the one in question.

Or simply try and power it down, remove from inventory/add to inventory.

[Cyberfed27]

Any removable media that may be attached?