Summary
Instant Restore (IR) of a VMDK should not be used to create a bootable VM.
Symptoms
1. Run a successful agentless backup.
2. Create a new VM without a hard disk.
3. Run an Instant Restore (IR) job of a VMDK where the target is the VM created in step 2.
4. The job completes, but the VM can't boot up after the restore.
Resolution
Instant Recovery of a VMDK should not be used to create a bootable VM. To create a bootable VM, perform an Instant Recovery of the VM. To perform an Instant Recovery of a single VMDK, perform the recovery to a properly configured VM that is already bootable.
A similar problem can occur if performing an Instant Recovery of a VMDK to a VM that has a pre-existing hard drive controller, but which doesn't match source machine controller. The machine might not boot if it doesn't already have a bootable hard drive.