"Error: Unknown error" when trying to start virtual machine from VMware server

Posted by slhck on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by slhck
Published on 2011-11-19T09:46:49Z Indexed on 2011/11/19 9:55 UTC
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Problem

We are running VMware Server 2.0.0 build-116503 on a Ubuntu 10.04 LTS server. There is a virtual machine installed, running Lotus Domino on Windows Server 2003.

Ever since a sudden power failure last week, the virtual machine won't properly start up. When I run the command:

vmrun -T server -h https://127.0.0.1:8333/sdk -u root -p jk2x2208 start "[standard] lotus/test.vmx"

… after 30 seconds it displays:

Error: Unknown error

That's about everything I get. I know the command is right, since that's what we've used all the time.

This has happened last Saturday after a scheduled backup shutdown, and somehow I was able to start it again. This week, it happened again, and I can't get it back up.

Occasionally, I also get:

Error: Cannot connect to the virtual machine

When I get this, and I run the start command, it seemingly works. Why is this so random? Which configuration could have been messed up?


What I've tried / other info

  • I already shut down VMware itself with /etc/init.d/vmware stop. This works.

  • I tried to start VMware again with /etc/init.d/vmware start. It complains that it's "not configured", which is why I had to rm /etc/vmware/not_configured, and then try to start again.

  • There have been no software updates on the machine, and no configuration changes

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