How to properly boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox

To properly boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox during a migration, you must follow a specific procedure.

Windows VMs are quite sensitive to virtual platform changes. This is because the storage controller configured in the source environment often causes issues, the mismatch between the original controller and the new Proxmox drivers (which are not yet loaded) must be resolved to avoid boot failures.

If you are migrating Linux-based VMs, you typically won’t face major booting issues. Usually, you only need to update the network configuration to reflect the new NIC names assigned by the Proxmox environment.

Prerequisites

Before migrating a Windows vSphere VM to Proxmox, install the Proxmox (VirtIO) drivers for Windows and uninstall VMware Tools. To streamline this transition, you can utilize automation scripts.

Use a solution like Veeam Backup & Replication to backup the VM and restore it directly to the Proxmox node.

Alternatively, you can use a utility such as the StarWind V2V Converter to handle the disk format transition.

Before powering on the VM

Once the VM has been migrated to Proxmox, certain configurations are required to ensure a successful first boot.

Attempting to power on the VM without first selecting the correct storage controller will result in a boot failure (BSOD). This occurs because the Windows OS has not yet loaded the drivers for the Proxmox-specific controller.

Boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox

To ensure Windows can properly boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox, you must temporarily switch the disk interface to SATA.

Navigate to the Hardware section and select the primary Hard Disk and click Detach.

 

Click Yes to confirm. The disk will appear as Unused Disk.

 

Double click the Unused Disk and select SATA in the Bus/Device dropdown menu. Click Add.

 

The Hard Disk is now configured to use the SATA controller, which is natively supported by Windows without additional drivers.

 

In the Options section, double click Boot Order and tick the checkbox for the sata0 Device. Click OK.

 

The Boot Order is now properly configured. Power on the VM.

 

The VM will now boot using the newly configured SATA disk. If the configuration is correct, the Windows login screen should appear within a few moments.

HotAdd VirtIO controller

For optimal disk I/O performance, you should transition from the SATA interface to the VirtIO controller once the initial boot is successful.

Since Windows won’t recognize a VirtIO boot disk without the driver already being present in the OS, you must force the OS to load it to properly to boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox.

With the VM powered on, navigate to Hardware and select Add > Hard Disk.

 

Hot add add a small 1 GB Disk size to the selected Storage and set the Bus/Device to VirtIO Block. Click Add. Windows will detect new hardware.

 

Restart the VM to ensure the driver is fully initialized and active.

 

Once the driver is active in Windows, you can move your primary OS disk to the faster controller. Shut down the VM.

Configure the VirtIO Controller

Select the 1 GB disk and click Detach.

 

Click Yes to confirm.

 

Select the resulting Unused Disk and click Remove.

 

Click Yes to confirm.

 

Select your main SATA drive and click Detach.

 

Click Yes to confirm.

 

Double click the Unused Disk and change the Bus/Device from SATA to VirtIO Block. Click Add.

 

The Hard Disk is now configured to use the VirtIO controller.

 

Double click the SCSI Controller and select VirtIO SCSI single as controller Type. Click OK.

 

Go to Options > Boot Order, and enable the new virtio0 Device and click OK.

 

Once both the SCSI Controller and the Hard Disk are configured to use VirtIO, you can power on the virtual machine.

Power on the VM

The VM now utilizes the VirtIO SCSI controller, and which offers the lowest overhead and highest throughput available in a Proxmox environment.

 

By following this procedure you bypass the common Inaccessible Boot Device (BSOD) errors that typically occur when you boot a migrated Windows vSphere VM in Proxmox.

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