Unable to start trial VM on ESXi

[TodorPetkov]

Hello,

I am trying to run trial VM in VMware ESXi. After initial boot, it brings me to login screen. I type admin for username and got the following message:

I waited 10 minute to make sure all processes are up, but to no avail. Is there anything that I am missing?

Environment details:

Source template: PA-VM-ESX-10.2.5.vm_eval.ova

ESXi: VMware ESXi, 6.7.0, 17167734, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5640 @ 2.27GHz.

Thanks in advance.

[Spiterman]

Hello @TodorPetkov ,

I had the same issue when installing trial VM in VMware ESXi. I understand that there are 3 "login" prompts:

vm login:

PA-HDF login:

PA-VM login:

Ultimately you want to get the "PA-VM login" prompt to log in with the admin/admin credentials. However, it does not go past the first prompt when installing in VMware ESXi. The workaround I tried and was able to get working was by stopping the VM bootup process by typing "maint" immediately after startup. This has to be done rather quick as the VM boots up fast.

If successful, you must give it time as it is booting into Maintenance Mode.

Once in Maintenance Mode, select "Continue --> Disk Image --> Reinstall 10.x.x.

After some time it will display a successful result. Scroll all the way down to select Reboot option. After this you should be able to get the "PA-VM login:" prompt and you can proceed to log in with the default credentials.

Also, make sure to first add enough Network Adapters to your VM to connect to your virtual environment and to assign different Zones to those interfaces. Basically every NA will correspond to an interface on the FW.

Hope this helps!

[SylviaPudimat]

Had the same issue but my prompt did not change after reinstalling the image but remained as "PA-HDF login:"
Just tried to login and it worked. (Just in case you are waiting for the prompt to change).

[andrew571]

You can press CTRL-D to force a new login prompt (to see if it changed).