Restored or replicated VM fails on boot with 'Error loading operation system' (4047576)

Successfuly backed up or replicated VM restore or replicate failover actions complete successfully in the vRanger GUI but throw the above error post restore or failover boot.

If the VM was P2V'd using the VMware Converter or another P2V tool, there is a discrepancy between the source VM's vmdk & the restored or failed over VM's VM_Name.vmdk [ stub or header ] file, specifically in these vmdk geometry stipulating values:

ddb.geometry.sectors

ddb.geometry.cylinders.

Putty into the restored VM’s ESX host

• cd /vmfs/volumes/

• Then cd into the datastore that the restored < VM_Name > is on.

• Vi or nano edit < VM_Name.vmdk > file, replacing the restored or replicated VM’s ddb.geometry.sectors & ddb.geometry.cylinders values with those of the original VM being restored, if such are available.

• If the original VM’s *.vmdk header or stub file is no longer accessible or does not exist, then you can use the following VMware KB or the ‘oh_dear_I_lost_my_descriptor ‘ tool to generate a new vmdk stub / header file that is generated from the *.-flat.vmdk’s byte count.　***Note that use of the ‘oh_dear_I_lost_my_descriptor’ tool requires copying the *-flat.vmdk file to an accessible drive on the vRanger backup server for *.vmdk header [ stub ] file generation.

Resources:

　http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511

　http://sanbarrow.com/moa23/files/oh_dear_I_lost_my_descriptor.zip