After a host power failure, vMotion fails with the error: Module is not loaded

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After a host power failure, you are unable to vMotion a virtual machine, even after the host powers on and appears in the vCenter Server inventory
• Cannot perform vMotion after the host power failure
• You see the error:
  
  Module is not loaded
  
  
• vMotion is currently enabled on the host
• The vMotion task eventually fails in vCenter Server

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Cause

This issue occurs because the vMotion module fails to load automatically after a power failure.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESXi 5.0 Build 1254542. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch ESXi500-201308401-BG: Updates esx-base (2053133).

To workaround this issue when you do not want to upgrade, you must re-enable vMotion after the host power failure.

To re-enable vMotion:

1. Click the host in vCenter Server and then click the Configuration tab.
2. Click Properties on the vSwitch where the vMotion VMkernel port group is located.
3. Click the vMotion port group and click Edit.
4. Deselect the vMotion Enabled option.
5. Click OK and then click Close.
6. Connect to the host using SSH.
7. Run this command to verify if the vMotion module is loaded:
   
   vmkload_mod -l | grep migrate
   
   
8. If the above command does not return any values, run this command to load the module:
   
   vmkload_mod migrate
   
   
9. Run this command and verify if the vMotion module is now loaded:
   
   vmkload_mod -l | grep migrate
   
   
10. Run this command to restart services:
    
    services.sh restart
    
    
11. Repeat Steps 1 to 3 and select the vMotion Enabled option. This enables vMotion.
12. Migrate virtual machines to another host.
13. Reboot the host.
    
    Note: Rebooting the host is suggested to verify that the migrate module will load properly during subsequent reboots.
    
    
14. Run this command to verify if the vMotion module loads properly:
    
    vmkload_mod -l | grep migrate
    
    You must see an output similar to:
    
    # vmkload_mod -l | grep migrate
    migrate 2 252

Additional Information

VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch ESXi500-201308401-BG: Updates esx-base