This issue occurs if the destination datastore does not have enough free space to accommodate the storage migration operation.
For the complete list of Storage vMotion requirements, see the section Storage vMotion Requirements and Limitations in the Basic System Administration guide.
To resolve this issue, you must ensure that you have an adequate amount of free space on the datastores. To free up space, consider:
You may have most of the options greyed out in the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client. This occurs if the virtual machine is in the middle of a migration process. No changes are allowed until that migration task is completed. The Remove from Inventory and Add to Inventory options do not impact the status of the virtual machine.
To set the migration status of the virtual machine as completed:
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Reload the virtual machine settings with the command: In ESX:
# vmware-vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
# vmware-vim-cmd vmsvc/reload VMID_from_previous_command In ESXi:
# vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
# vim-cmd vmsvc/reload VMID_from_previous_command
Note: Re-registering the virtual machine also has the same effect. For more information, see Registering or adding a virtual machine to the inventory (1006160) .
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Retry the Storage vMotion operation after ensuring that the datastore has enough free space and that the migration status is completed.
Perform these operations to ensure a successful Storage vMotion:
- Whenever possible, use an ESX/ESX 4.x host to perform the Storage vMotion process. The ESX host does not use snapshots for the task.
- If the virtual machine is big, perform the Storage vMotion operation in multiple steps by moving one virtual disk at a time. To move one virtual disk at a time, start the Storage vMotion wizard, on the Select Datastore screen, click Advanced and move only one disk at a time.