Informational

A virtual machine fails to power on with the error: Unsupported and/or invalid disk type (1028943).

This issue occurs if a virtual machine that is meant for VMware Hosted products such as VMware Workstation, VMware Player or VMware Fusion is powered-on on an ESX/ESXi host.

Connect to the ESX/ESXi host via SSH.

For more information, see Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x (1017910).

Run this command:

vmkfstools -i HostedVirtualDisk ESXVirtualDisk

Where HostedVirtualDisk is the path to the vmdk on the host and ESXVirtualDisk is the vmdk to be output by the command.

For example:

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore/virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore/new_virtual_machine_folder/virtual_machine.vmdk

Detach the currently attached VMDK from the virtual machine:

In the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
Select the hard disk.
Click Remove.
Select the Remove from virtual machine option.
Click OK.

Reattach the newly formatted VMDK from Step 2:

In the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
Click Add.
Select the hard disk.
Click Next.
Select the Use an existing virtual disk option.
Click Next.
Click Browse and locate the new VMDK created in Step 2.
Click Next.
Click Next.
Click Finish to close the Add Hardware window.
Click OK to close the Virtual Machine properties window.

Power on the virtual machine.