Unable to add PMEM/NVDIMM to VMs with CBT enabled

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Adding PMEM/NVDIMM to VMs with CBT enabled fails with the below error:
  
  Failed to configure change tracking for NVDIMM device nvdimm0:0: The specified feature is not supported by this version

 

• In /var/run/log/vpxa.log in the ESXi host, you see the following message:

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vpxa[2104612] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=kph3s2i0-5994232-auto-3kh6h-h5:70275950-ff-01-8e] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-58180 -- vm-2 -- vim.VirtualMachine.reconfigure: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault:
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault) {
--> faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
--> faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
--> (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
--> key = "msg.nvdimm.ctkConfigFailure",
--> arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
--> (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
--> key = "1",
--> value = "nvdimm0:0"
--> },
--> (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
--> key = "2",
--> value = "msg.disklib.NOTSUPPORTED"
--> }
--> ],
--> message = "Failed to configure change tracking for NVDIMM device nvdimm0:0: The specified feature is not supported by this version"
--> }
--> ],
--> reason = "Failed to configure change tracking for NVDIMM device nvdimm0:0: The specified feature is not supported by this version"
--> msg = "Failed to configure change tracking for NVDIMM device nvdimm0:0: The specified feature is not supported by this version"
--> }
--> Args:

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The change block tracking feature is unsupported for vPMem/NVDIMM.

Resolution

Disable CBT, and then add PMEM/NVDIMM.

To disable CBT, refer to article Changed Block Tracking (CBT) on virtual machines.