I have a reoccurring issue with my Home Assistant VM on ESXi. After the host is powered off ungracefully the VM will not power on, it errors:

The VMDK is version 6.2 and ESXi version 6.7.

tklaassens workaround

I have been using Tim’s workaround for too long:

SSH into the ESX host.

Run the following commands:

[josh@esxi:~] vmkfstools -x check /vmfs/volumes/1b0d5392-52f42ee8/hass/haos_ova-6.2.vmdk
Disk needs repair.
[josh@esxi:~] vmkfstools -x repair /vmfs/volumes/1b0d5392-52f42ee8/hass/haos_ova-6.2.vmdk
Disk was successfully repaired.

TriplusTutorials fix

This post claims to fix it permanently: Running Hass.IO & Hass OS on VMWare ESXI 7.0

Let’s go

I have recently upgraded ESXi from 6.7 to 7.0 so let’s reinstall haos.

1. Download the latest version of haos from https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases.

   The version I’m downloading is haos_ova-10.0.vmdk.zip

2. Extract the VMDK and upload it to your ESXi datastore (e.g. datastore3).

3. Enable SSH on the host and locate the VMDK.

    [josh@esxi:~] cd /vmfs/volumes/
    [josh@esxi:/vmfs/volumes] ls
    datastore3    vmrun
    [josh@esxi:/vmfs/volumes] ls ./datastore3
    haos_ova-10.0.vmdk
   

4. Clone the virtualdisk to the permanent datastore (e.g. from datastore3 to vmrun)

    [josh@esxi:/vmfs/volumes] mkdir ./vmrun/haos-10
    [josh@esxi:/vmfs/volumes] vmkfstools -i ./datastore3/haos_ova-10.0.vmdk ./vmrun/haos-10/haos.vmdk
    Destination disk format: Thin
    Cloning disk '.datastore3/haos_ova-10.0.vmdk'...
    Clone: 100% done.
   

5. Create a new virtual machine

6. Select a name and guest OS

   • Name: haos-10
   • Compatibility: ESXi 7.0 U2 virtual machine
   • Guest OS family: Linux
   • Guest OS version: Other 5.x or later Linux (64-bit)

7. Select storage

   Datastore: vmrun

8. Customise settings

   Virtual Hardware

   • CPU: 4
   • Cores per Socket: 2
   • Memory: 16 GB
   • Hard disk 1: remove
   • Add hard disk -> Existing Hard Disk: vmrun/haos-10/haos.vmdk
   • Network Adapter 1: 107 IoT
   • Adaptor Type :E1000e
   • CD/DVD Drive 1: remove
   • SATA Controller: remove

   VM Options

   • Boot Options -> Enable UEFI secure boot: uncheck

   Table 1: Sumary of Virtual Machine | Hardware | Configuration | | ————————- | ——————————— | | Name | haos-10 | | Datastore | vmrun | | Guest OS name | Other 5.x or later Linux (64-bit) | | Compatibility | ESXi 7.0 U2 virtual machine | | vCPUs | 4 | | Memory | 16 GB | | Network adapters | 1 | | Network adapter 1 network | 107 LOL-CATS | | Network adapter 1 type | E1000e | | IDE controller 0 | IDE 0 | | IDE controller 1 | IDE 1 | | SCSI controller 0 | VMware Paravirtual | | Hard disk 1 | | - Capacity | 1GB | | - Datastore | [vmrun] haos-10/ | | - Mode | Dependent | | - Provisioning | Thick provisioned, lazily zeroed | | - Controller | SCSI controller 0 : 0 | | USB controller 1 | USB 2.0 |

9. Boot the VM

   

10. Complete the setup process

11. Create a backup within Home Assistant Settings -> System -> Backup: Create Backup

12. Take snapshot of the VM

13. play