vMotion fails during validation stage of migration with error: Compatibility Check Failure

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides guidance on diagnosing issues that may cause vMotion to fail during the validation stage of migration. The validation failure can occur when the ESXi, network, or datastore configurations are checked for compatibility issues. The article provides guidance to help eliminate common causes for compatibility issues by verifying:

CPU compatibility
Licensing
VMKernel Network Configuration
Port group has not been configured or has been configured with a duplicate IP
VT not enabled.
Virtual machine has device or RDM attached
CPU masks

Symptoms

vMotion errors or warnings appear during the compatibility check of a virtual machine when attempting to do a migration.
Performing a vMotion between a virtual machine between two hosts fails with the errors:
- Host CPU is incompatible with the virtual machine's requirements at CPUID level 0x1 register 'ecx'
- The CPU of the host is incompatible with the CPU feature requirements of the virtual machine; problem detected at CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'edx'
- Unable to migrate from <source server> to <destination server>: The VMotion interface is not configured (or is misconfigured) on the destination host '<destination server>'.
- Unable to migrate from <source server> to <destination server>: Virtual machine has CPU and/or memory affinities configured, preventing VMotion.
- Unable to migrate from <source server> to <destination server>: The CPU of the host is incompatible with the CPU feature requirements of the virtual machine; problem detected at CPUID level.
- Host CPU is incompatible with the virtual machine's requirements at cupid level 0x1 register'ecx'
  Host bits: 0000:0100:0000:1000:0010:0010:0000:0001
  Required: 1000:0100:0000:100x:xxx0:0x1x:xxx0:x001
  Mismatch detected for these features:
  *General incompatibilities; refer to KB article 1993 for possible solutions.
vMotion operation fails with the error:

There are not enough Licenses installed to perform this operation
vMotion of virtual machines with RDMs fails validation of the RDM disks with the error:

Virtual Disk 'hard disk 0' is a mapped direct access LUN and its not accessible

Resolution

Validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for the environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution.

Verify the host CPU feature set contains features supported by the destination host if then the CPU compatibility requirements are not met during validation stage of migration. To workaround this issue, try enabling EVC mode within the cluster.
Verify that the vCenter Server is licensed to support vMotion.
Verify the VMkernel networking is configured correctly.
Verify vMotion is enabled and configured correctly. For more information, see Troubleshooting the migration compatibility error: The VMotion interface is not configured (or is misconfigured) on the destination host.
Verify if a mismatch of 'NX' flag exists between source and destination ESXi hosts. For more information, see vMotion fails with the error: problem detected at CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'edx'.
Verify Virtualization Technology (VT) is enabled on the source and destination ESXi host. For more information see, Ensuring Virtualization Technology is enabled on the VMware host.
Verify if the virtual machine has a device attached to a physical host (CDROM, serial cable). For more information on specific Device and Disk Configuration messages, see Overview of migration compatibility error messages to identify the error or warning that occurs during vMotion compatibility check and the corresponding article.
Determine if vMotion fails because a virtual machine with RDMs attached as a result of VML mismatch. For more information see, Virtual Disk 'X' is a mapped direct access LUN that is not accessible.
If vMotion is failing after upgrading Virtual Hardware in a virtual machine or after upgrading vCenter Server, the upgraded virtual machine may have some CPU masks applied which are causing migration issues.
Verify that CPU affinities have not been set for either CPU or Memory which reserve resources on the the virtual machine resulting in a compatibility error.