VxRail: Windows VM powers off intermittently.
Summary: Windows Virtual Machine (VM) powers off due to expired or invalid activation
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Symptoms
Windows VM powers off intermittently.
The Vmware.log file, located in vmfs/volumes on the host the VM is running on, shows that the Guest OS initiated the power off.
Log entries may look something like this:
2020-04-29T11:55:47.259Z| vcpu-0| I125: PIIX4: PM Soft Off. Good-bye. 2020-04-29T11:55:47.259Z| vcpu-0| I125: Chipset: Issuing power-off request... 2020-04-29T11:55:47.259Z| vcpu-0| A100: ConfigDB: Setting softPowerOff = "TRUE"
Cause
The wlms service initiates a power down periodically due to Windows not being activated.
When looking at the Windows Event Viewer on the VM, it shows the following error:
Event ID 1074: The process C:\Windows\system32\wlms\wlms.exe (VM_NAME) has initiated the shutdown of computer VM_NAME on behalf of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: Other (Planned) Reason Code: 0x80000000 Shutdown Type: shutdown Comment: The license period for this installation of Windows has expired. The operating system is shutting down.
Resolution
Activating the windows VM with a valid product key resolves this issue.
Article Properties
Article Number: 000062449
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 14 Aug 2025
Version: 5
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