mssql: Could not open a connection to SQL Server (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 2)

Unable to connect to SQL Server database initial Win 2017 boot up. The error message looks like network related but I was able to connect to it locally either. It turned out that the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine was not running even though, it has been set to Auto Start.

Get to SQL Server 2017 Configuration

After starting the SQL Server, I was able to connect.

Moving the SQL Server to SSD drive enable the SQL Server engine to start upon Windows Server starting up. My guess is, this may be due to slow disk causing the SQL Server engine to timeout on trying to start the service when Windows first starting up.

Workstation: Failed to allocate main memory

This has to do with where the VMDK reside not mounted. Mounted the filesystem it should resolve the following issue. The error message is a little misleading where it is referring to 'paging' and 'mainmem'.