Troubleshooting — VMware Workstation

If the appliance is deployed but isn't behaving as expected, work through the issues below. If it boots but never connects — or the tunnel drops right after it establishes — the cause is usually firewall L7/TLS inspection or NAC, not this platform: see Connectivity Troubleshooting.

The VM shows a black screen on boot

The OVA ships with UEFI firmware and Secure Boot off, so this should not happen on a clean import. If you see a black screen, the firmware was changed away from the imported defaults: open VM → Settings → Options → Advanced, confirm Firmware type is UEFI and Enable secure boot is unchecked, then power off and restart. If it persists, contact your engagement lead for a replacement OVA rather than editing the .vmx by hand.

The appliance does not appear on the engagement LAN

The network adapter is most likely set to NAT. Open VM → Settings → Network Adapter and switch to Bridged (Autodetect) or select the specific host NIC that is wired to the engagement network. Restart the VM after changing the adapter type.

Import fails with a conformance error

Workstation checks the OVA against the OVF spec. If the import fails, Workstation offers a Retry button that relaxes the conformance checks — click it. If the error persists, contact your engagement lead for a replacement OVA.

How do I check the appliance's status?

This image is customized for your engagement and boots already registered. Open the VM console tab in Workstation Pro: it shows a live status and troubleshooting dashboard (network interface, VPN tunnel, connectivity health). The appliance connects to the Sophos headend automatically once it has outbound internet access; if the dashboard reports a problem, share what it shows with your engagement lead.