Problem: Virtual Machine Cannot Start (Vmware) – ESX/ESXi – 5.0
Explanation: There will be situations where the VM on a host fails to start without showing any
progress when the power state is reset. This can be caused by a hung process on the host.
Solution: SSH into the host on which the VM is running and run the following commands:
[root@host-name]# vmware-cmd /path/to/vmdirectory/vmconfig.vmx getstate
[root@host-name] vmware-cmd -l | grep vmname.vmname.com
[root@host-name] ps auwwx | grep vmname.vmname.com
[root@host-name] kill -9 the pid from above
[root@host-name] vmware-cmd -l | grep vmname.vmname.com //you should get just the prompt back
[root@host-name] vmware-cmd /path/to/vmdirectory/vmconfig.vmx start
The above steps should help start the VM when it is stuck in transition.
Here is a related post you maybe interested in: Increasing VMware Virtual Machine performance by placing the Swap file in an alternate location – ESX/ESXi 5.0
