topic Re: Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue in HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue

AnthonyLyons — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:46:27 GMT

Hello Again,

I'm attempting to test Zerto for HVM and following the guide here for the initial deployment of the ZVM Manager... to the letter

https://help.zerto.com/bundle/Deploy.HVM.HTML.10.8/page/ZVM_HVM_Deployment_Guide.htm

however when attempting to boot the ZVM, I don't get beyond the initial grub boot screen... instead I get this error...

loading linux 6.1.0-42-amd64 ...
error: out of memory.
loading initial ramdisk ...
error: you need to load the kernel first.

The VM is sized based on the kb article, it has 16GB of RAM, and the 6 CPUs... my first attempt was on the older 8.0.12 version of morpheus, which I upgrade to 8.0.13 and redeployed the appliance, but got the same result. I'm using the Zerto-ZVM-10.8.11.2037. I didn't see anything in the release notes to suggest a fix for this? Any ideas?

Re: Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue

controles — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:14:52 GMT

Hi,

Yeah, I’ve seen this with Zerto a few times and it’s usually something small but annoying, not really a bug.

When you get stuck at GRUB with “you need to load the kernel first”, it almost always means the VM and the appliance don’t agree on how the disk is presented. Zerto is pretty strict there.

In my case, the culprit was usually one of these:

VM created with UEFI instead of BIOS
Disk controller set to something fancy instead of LSI Logic SAS

Once I rebuilt the VM using plain old BIOS and LSI SAS, it booted right away. Same ISO, same version, no other changes.

The RAM and CPU sizing you’re using should be fine — I’ve run ZVM with similar specs without any issues.

I know it’s frustrating because everything looks correct and the installer starts fine, but this tends to be a VM hardware profile thing more than anything else.

If you haven’t already, I’d just scrap the VM and redeploy it fresh with those settings and see if it gets past GRUB.

Hope that helps.

Re: Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue

AnthonyLyons — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:55:38 GMT

The issue seems to be related to the use of the custom ZVM Service Plan that's provisions the CPU and Memory to the ZVM.

If I follow the Zerto guide (link in my original post) to the letter and create the 6CPU, 16GB Memory Service Plan as directed, I end up getting the out of memory error on the deployed ZVM VM. If I then change the Service Plan on the deployed ZVM VM to one of the defaults (say 8CPUs, 32GB Memory) and reboot, the ZVM boots up fine. I then tested different customer Service Plans with increased CPU and Memory and I got the same out of memory issue.

So what is different between a Customer Service Plan and the Default Plans that come with Morpheus that would result in this behaviour? I'll have to dig in and compare them and test more.

Also you mentioned using an ISO... this deployment uses zipped qcow2 files that are uploaded to my virtual image bucket and deployed onto a HVM cluster, so I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say, "Same ISO, same version, no other changes" as this isn't a typical 'boot from iso' deployment.

Anyway I have a workaround and got the ZVM deployed and got Zerto functioning, unfortunately it currently DOESN'T support multitenancy which is a show stopper for me at the moment. I know the feature is planned to be available in 'Phase 3' of the Zerto Morpheus rollout, but I don't have an ETA on when that will happen.

Re: Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue

CalvinZito — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:40:11 GMT

@AnthonyLyons I reached out to a couple of people I know on the Zerto product management team and they asked you open a call with HPE Support. Also note, since the topic is VM Essentials, I'm going to ask our admins to move the conversation to that message board.

Re: Zerto ZVM for HVM deployment issue

controles — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:53:41 GMT

Hello,

I experienced a similar issue with version 8.0.11. I then upgraded to 8.0.12 and 8.0.13, but the issue did not improve.

I spoke with a colleague at HPE who is dedicated to VM Essentials, and he confirmed that Zerto ZVM version 10.8.11.2037 has boot issues (GRUB / out of memory) in HVM environments. The recommendation is to wait for a new patch or use an earlier build for this test.

Best regards,
Carlos