vMotion fails in one direction with the log error: bad0020

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• vMotion between two hosts works in one direction (for example, from ESX1 to ESX2), but fails in the other direction (for example, from ESX2 to ESX1)
• The vMotion operation fails at 10%
• You see the following error reported in the vSphere client:
  
  A general system error occurred: Migration failed while copying data. Not Supported.
  
• The vmkernel.log files contain entries similar to:
  
  (cat /var/log/current_vmkernel_or_messages_log | cut -d ")" -f 2- | grep -A3 -i vmotionrecv)
VMotionRecv: 1589: 1255000435466375 S: Error handling message: Not supported
WARNING: Migrate: 295: 1255000435466375 S: Failed: Not supported (0xbad0020) @0x0
WARNING: Migrate: 2545: 1255000435466375 S: Migration has failed; failing memory pre-copy attempt.
WARNING: Migrate: 3267: 1255000435466375 S: Migration considered a failure by the VMX. It is most likely a timeout, but check the VMX log for the true error.
  
• The vmware.log files contain entries similar to:
  
  (cat /vmfs/volumes/*/*/vmware.log | cut -d "|" -f 2- | grep -i setfailure)
Migrate_SetFailure: Failed waiting for data. Error bad0020. Not supported.
  
• The hostd.log files contain entries similar to:
  
  (cat /var/log/current_hostd_log_file | cut -d "]" -f 2- | grep -B4 -i vmotionlaststatuscb)
Question info: Migration to host <<unknown>> failed with error Not supported (0xbad0020).
, Id: 1 : Type : 3, Default: 0, Number of options: 1
Retrieved current VM state from foundry 4, 8
VMotionResolveCheck: Operation in progress
VMotionLastStatusCb: Failed with error 536870944: Migration failed while copying data. Not supported.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
• VMware ESX 4.1.x
• VMware ESX 4.0.x
• VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
• VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
• VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
• VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
• VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
• VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Cause

• This issue occurs when the dvsdata.db file is corrupted (typically on the destination ESX/ESXi host).
• This issue may occur even if you are not using vNetwork Distributed Switches (vDS) in your ESX/ESXi environment.

Resolution

To determine if the dvsdata.db file is corrupted, run the command:

# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-dvs

If the dvsdata.db is corrupted, you see the output:

failed to get config data: Not initialized.

Note: If no output is returned, then vDS is not enabled.

 

To resolve this issue:

1. Download and unzip 1015322_dvsdata.zip (attached to this article). This zip file contains an uncorrupted copy of dvsdata.db.
   
   Note: You can also obtain an uncorrupted dvsdata.db from an ESX/ESXi host in your environment which is not experiencing this issue.
   
2. Replace the corrupt dvsdata.db in /etc/vmware/ with the uncorrupted file.
3. Reboot the host.
4. Run the following command to verify that the file is no longer corrupted:
   
   # /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-dvs

Alternately, you can use this command to reload dvsdata.db without a reboot:

# /usr/lib/vmware/bin/net-dvs -S /etc/vmware/dvsdata.db

Additional Information

Location of log files for Broadcom products