Enabling FT on a virtual machine fails with the error: No suitable host can be found to place the Fault Tolerance Secondary VM for virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot enable Fault Tolerance (FT) on a virtual machine
• Enabling FT on a virtual machine fails
• You see the error:
  
  No suitable host can be found to place the Fault Tolerance Secondary VM for virtual machine vm_name

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x

Cause

This issue occurs when there are no compatible hosts in the cluster which can run the Fault Tolerance secondary virtual machine.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, reconfigure the existing hosts by installing compatible ESX versions or reconfigure the primary virtual machine to ensure compatibility.

For more information, see:

• Processors and guest operating systems that support VMware Fault Tolerance (1008027)
• VMware Fault Tolerance FAQ (1013428)
• vSphere Availability Guide
• VMware SiteSurvey plugin