Cannot Boot Up VMware VM After Recovery Job Run

Product version: 10.10

Last modified: 13 July 2023

Problem

After running a VMware VM recovery job, the resulting virtual machine cannot be booted.

Background

Hyper-V Classification

If the recovered VM is running Windows Server and your target ESXi host is of version 7 or older, this may be caused by the Windows OS classifying the server as a Hyper-V machine.

Boot Settings

Otherwise, this issue may be a result of changing the respective VM's boot settings. These settings are housed in the VM's .nvram file, which is not backed up by NAKIVO Backup & Replication. As a result, the VM cannot be booted if it does not have the default boot settings.

Solution

Hyper-V Classification

To fix the issue, proceed as follows:

  1. In the original VM, run PowerShell as Administrator.

  2. Run the following command to remove the Hyper-V role from the VM:

    Remove-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V

  3. Once the removal is complete, reboot the VM.

  4. Re-run the backup job for this VM.

  5. Re-run the recovery job for this VM.

Boot Settings

To fix this and successfully boot the VM, you will need to reconfigure the VM's BIOS settings; you will need to have root access to do so. Proceed as follows:

  1. Turn on the virtual machine. As soon as you see the BIOS splash screen, press F2 to access the EFI Boot Manager. Alternatively, you can go to VM → Power → Power on to Firmware from the VMware Workstation toolbar.

  2. In the Boot Manager window, go to Enter Setup → Configure boot options.

  3. To configure the boot options to the same as when the VM was backed up, first add or delete boot options as needed via the Add boot option and Delete boot option settings.

    Example

    For the VM using the grub.efi boot loader:

    • Click the Add boot option.

    • Navigate to grub.efi by selecting the boot drive, EFI, and the guest OS.

    • Enter a description for the grub.efi loader and commit the changes.

  4. Click Change boot order once all the necessary boot options are configured.

  5. In the resulting screen, all boot options are selected by default. Press Enter and select the boot option that needs to be re-ordered. Using the (-) and (+) keys, move the chosen boot option down or up respectively.

  6. Once the VM's boot settings are configured to match those of the VM backup, click Commit changes and exit followed by Exit the Boot Maintenance Manager. 

  7. Try booting the recovered VM again.