Virtual machine powered on by different host with log errors: "clean power off = ABSENT" and "clean power off = UNCLEAN"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Virtual machine is powered on on a different host if powered off, or the virtual machine fails.
• This issue occurs when VM Monitoring and DRS are disabled.
• vpxa.log contains and entry similar to:

[2011-12-08 10:45:20.045 F6E4AB90 verbose 'App'] [VpxaVMAP] vm = /vmfs/volumes/5e5ca26c-af023f01-188c-2c7f76c6e479/vm001/vm001.vmx, power state = ABSENT, ft state = FT_NOTCONFIGURED, clean power off = UNCLEAN, altHost = esxhost002 [2011-12-08 10:45:20.045 F6F4EB90 verbose 'App'] [VpxaVMAP::SendCommand] VMAP request: <CHANGEVMSTATE></CHANGEVMSTATE><ID></ID>61 <VMLIST></VMLIST><VM></VM><NAME></NAME>/%2fvmfs%2fvolumes%2f/5e5ca26c%2daf023f01%2d188c%2d2c7f76c6e479%2fvm001%2fvm001%2evmx <TYPE></TYPE>1 <FTPAIR></FTPAIR>/ <CURRENTHOST></CURRENTHOST>esxhost001 <ALTERNATEHOST></ALTERNATEHOST>esxhost002 <STATEHINT></STATEHINT>ABSENT <STATEHINTREASON></STATEHINTREASON>UNCLEAN <FTSTATEHINT></FTSTATEHINT>FT_NOTCONFIGURED <FTSTATEHINTREASON></FTSTATEHINTREASON>UNSET

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x

Cause

Because VM Monitoring is disabled, when HA discovers the ABSENT UNCLEAN virtual machine, it attempts to restart the virtual machine, since its intended state is powered on.

When HA attempts to power on the virtual machine, there are insufficient resources at that time. As a result, the virtual machine is powered on a host with greater resource capacity. HA recieves periodic resource updates. In this case the detection of the UNCLEAN powered off virtual machine occurs before the host is updated.

Resolution

HA is performing as expected.

If you want the virtual machine to run on the original host, you must vmotion the virtual machine back to the original host.