Why does a virtual machine fail to start?

Virtual Private Cloud 4.17 and later Bare metal worker nodes only RHCOS only

You try to start a virtual machine (VM), but the VM does not reach a running state.

The virtual machine configuration, the VirtualMachineInstance (VMI), or the target node might not meet the requirements for OpenShift Virtualization. Startup can also fail if the VM is not scheduled on a supported bare metal worker node.

To resolve the issue,

review the VM status, inspect the VMI, and check the node that the VM is scheduled to use.

1. Check the VM status and events.

   oc describe vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
   

2. Review the VirtualMachineInstance status.

   oc get vmi <vm_name> -n <namespace>
   oc describe vmi <vm_name> -n <namespace>
   

3. Review the virt-launcher pod logs.

   oc logs -n <namespace> virt-launcher-<vm_name>-xxxxx
   

4. Verify that the target node has sufficient resources.

   oc describe node <node_name>
   

5. Ensure that the VM is scheduled on a bare metal worker node.

   oc get vmi <vm_name> -n <namespace> -o wide
   

6. If the issue continues, review the requirements in Understanding OpenShift Virtualization and the node placement guidance in Installing the OpenShift Virtualization Operator.