ONTAP Simulator: ERROR on boot: missing pmroot_late.tgz file

psanida — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:48:27 GMT

Hi everyone,

I’m running into an issue with the ONTAP Simulator and wanted to check if others have seen the same behavior or if this might be version-related.

Environment:

NetApp ONTAP Simulator

OVA: vsim-netapp-DOT9.16.1-cm_nodar.ova

Running on VMware vSphere

Clientversion: 2.18.0 Client-Build-Nummer: 23593406 ESXi-Version: 8.0.3

ESXi-Build-Nummer: 24677879

What I did:

Deployed the OVA without errors

Completed the cluster setup successfully All disks from the OVA are present and visible (disk show looks fine, disks are assigned and in spare/pool0)

Problem:

After rebooting the node, the system throws errors during boot:

All local mailbox disks are inaccessible cloud database service is disabled ERROR: missing pmroot_late.tgz file

After that, the node does not come up cleanly.

Observations:

Disks are visible and assigned correctly Issue only appears after the initial setup + reboot Looks like a problem with mailbox/root initialization rather than missing disks

Question:

Has anyone experienced this with ONTAP Simulator 9.16.1?

Could this be a bug or known issue with this specific simulator version?

Any insights or workarounds would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: ONTAP Simulator: ERROR on boot: missing pmroot_late.tgz file

Brando — Fri, 01 May 2026 07:30:29 GMT

Before starting the setup did you change one of the node system ID's and reboot ? see Solved: Serial Number and System ID change - NetApp Community

topic Re: ONTAP Simulator: ERROR on boot: missing pmroot_late.tgz file in Simulator Discussions

ONTAP Simulator: ERROR on boot: missing pmroot_late.tgz file

Re: ONTAP Simulator: ERROR on boot: missing pmroot_late.tgz file