Failed to power on virtual machine. Unable to enumerate all disks

[austinklenk]

This weekend the hard drive that ESXI 6.5 was loaded on it, died. I was unable to recover the configuration. So I got a usb stick and loaded esxi 6.7 on it. Added all of my vm's from the storage raid config, then I was able to boot all except the most important one "of course", I'm getting the error, "Failed to power on virtual machine Tech Connect. Unable to enumerate all disks​. Ive tried googling and i have found nothing related to my error. Attached is a screen shot of the complete error message.

Thank you.

Message was edited by: Austin Klenk

[daphnissov]

Can you show this VM's configuration and maybe attach the VMX plus log file?

[austinklenk]

Which log file?

[daphnissov]

vmware.log, Tech Connect.vmx. Also, you have a snapshot on this VM if you weren't aware.

[austinklenk]

What file is the snapshot?

[daphnissov]

It corresponds to the files with the long pad of zeros (000001).

[austinklenk]

Can i delete the snapshot, Its a very old one, I created the snapshot when i first deployed the server back in August of 2017

[daphnissov]

If you can't power on the VM, it's unlikely you'll be able to delete that snapshot. You may not even want to try unless it's in good health to begin with (or unless you have a standalone backup).

[austinklenk]

the snapshot is this file right? Tech Connect_0-00000-delta.vmdk ?

[daphnissov]

That is one of two files, yes, but do not manually delete either of these two files.

[austinklenk]

Ok, I moved the snapshot out of the folder and i was able to get the machine to boot but its booting the snapshot from November.

[daphnissov]

Don't attempt to manipulate or move those files until you've identified the cause of why your VM won't boot.

[continuum]

If you want to get comprehensive advice we really need to see the vmware.log files.
Probably you tried to start the VM a couple of times - so it would be best if you attach all the log files to your next reply.
DO NOT DELETE any snapshot-vmdks - the older they are, the more important they are.

[austinklenk]

Logs 1 / 2

[austinklenk]

Logs 2 / 2

[imacfj]

Do you have space left on the datastore that the VM is sitting on?

[austinklenk]

Yes, plenty of space.

[continuum]

According to your screenshot that lists the files I believe that

A: the descriptor vmdk named Tech Connect_0-000001.vmdk is damaged or
B: the delta-vmdk named Tech Connect_0-000001-delta.vmdk is damaged.
Please try to download Tech Connect_0-000001.vmdk and attach it to your next reply.

[austinklenk]

Attached is 0-000001.vmdk

[continuum]

Too bad - this file looks fine to me.
Can you access the datastore via putty ?
If yes - please run this command against "Tech Connect_0-000001-delta.vmdk"
dd if="Tech Connect_0-000001-delta.vmdk" bs=512 count=1 | hexdump -C
The output of that command should start like this
000000000 COWD ....
Please check for the presence of the letters COWD.

[austinklenk]

[root@esxi:/vmfs/volumes/5ae5e432-be89c3c8-2d85-782bcb44a4df/Tech Connect] dd if="Tech Connect_0-000001-delta.vmdk" bs=512 count=1 | hexdump -C

00000000  43 4f 57 44 01 00 00 00  03 00 00 00 00 00 00 02  |COWD............|

00000010  01 00 00 00 04 00 00 00  00 20 00 00 00 9c d7 00  |......... ......|

00000020  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|1+0 records in

1+0 records out

*

00000200

[continuum]

That looks good.
I wonder why your first screenshot shows the delta.vmdk.
Normally Datastorebrowser displays vmdks as a single item unless either the binary flat/delta does not match the path in the descriptor or there is a syntax error in the descriptor vmdk.
So it looks like there is nothing wrong with the snapshot.
For further troubleshooting I would suggest to merge the basedisk with the snapshot into a new vmdk.
Use vmkfstools like this
vmkfstools -i "Tech Connect_0-000001.vmdk" "Tech_Connect_Basedisk,vmdk"
When that works without errors you can assign the new VMDK and try to start the VM with that one.
Please also check wether the assigned ISO-file is still valid. As you are using ESXi 6.7 new bugs may causing this.
Another idea I came across is the fact that you used thin provisioning for "Tech Connect_0.vmdk" - maybe that conflicts with HA in 6.7 ???

[austinklenk]

Thanks for everyones suggestions and help, i found a recent database backup that happens every night so i was able to download the backup and deploy a new webserver and upload the database backup and the app is back online.

[efrem3rd]

Hi got the same issue when I wanted to move a virtual machine from an ESXi 5.5 ( which will be decomissionned ) to a new ESXi 6.7 server. I stopped the VM on the orginal server, I copied all the files to the destination server and I got the "Unable to enumerate all disks" when I tried to pur online the machine on the ESXi 6.7. What I understand, it seems to be impossible to manually move a VM from a server to an other. I am trying with the standalone converter and I will let you know.

Regards

Francis