When powering on a virtual machine after a cold migration to a host, the virtual machine is automatically migrated to different host

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When you power on a virtual machine after cold migrating it to a host, you see that the virtual machine is automatically migrated to different host.
• The cold migration was successful

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x

Cause

This issue occurs if the virtual machine is a part of a DRS-enabled cluster and the DRS setting for the virtual machine is set to Fully Automated or Default (Fully Automated).

Resolution

To workaround this issue:

1. Click the Tasks and Events tab of the affected virtual machine.
2. Click Events and verify if DRS migrated the virtual machine to a specific host while trying to power on. For example, this event indicates that the virtual machine was migrated by DRS:
   
   DRS migrated virtual_machine_name from hostname1 to hostname2
   
   
3. Right-click the cluster and click Edit Settings.
4. Under DRS Settings, click Virtual Machine Options.
5. Change the Automation Level for the affected virtual machine to Disabled or Manual. This setting overrides the cluster setting.
6. Perform the cold migration of the virtual machine.
7. After the cold migration completes, power on the virtual machine. The virtual machine should now power on successfully.