Virtual Machine management options grayed out due to third-party software locks in vCenter

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• The 'Migrate' & 'Power Off' or 'Power On' or 'Delete from Disk' options are unavailable (grayed out) in the vCenter Server for a VM.
  
  
  
  
• A migration initiated in vCenter failed with the error: "Cannot relocate VM_Name because the action is disabled in vCenter"
  
  

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vCenter Server 9.x

Cause

• Virtual Machine is locked by 3rd party software (such as disaster recovery, backup, or replication software).
  
  
• The vCenter Server database contains orphaned records in the VPX_DISABLED_METHODS table. vCenter uses this table to restrict VM operations during active tasks (e.g., backups). If a task fails or does not complete gracefully, these restrictive entries persist and lock the VM management functions. This list of specific vSphere operations that are currently disabled can be found in vSphere UI under Virtual Machine > Configure > Disabled Methods.

Resolution

From vSphere Client (vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3 and later)

1. Starting from vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3, In the vSphere Client under Virtual Machine > Configure > Disabled Methods, Administrator should use the Source and Reason to verify if tasks are ongoing or not.
   
   Ex: Lock is present and backup software shows active backup.  In that instance the following steps should not be performed.  
   
   
2. If task is not ongoing, Administrator may remove restrictions on virtual machine operations such as migration or power on.
   
   
3. Click "Enable" option Below Disabled Methods.

 

 

Manually remove entries from the vCenter Mob:

Note: The Managed Object Browser (MOB) is deactivated by default in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 and above to comply with Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) requirements. Refer to the article "The MOB is disabled", unable to access the vCenter MOB in VCF 9.0" to enable the MOB.

1. Identify the VM's MOB ID
   
   
   1. Open a web browser to the vCenter Server's Flex (Flash) or vSphere Client (HTML5)
   2. In the left hand side inventory, select the affected VM's object
   3. With the VM selected and highlighted, in the URL bar, review the string and look for "VirtualMachine:vm-##"

Example:

https://ExamplevCenterFQDNorIP/ui/#?extensionId=vsphere.core.vm.summary&objectId=urn:vmomi:VirtualMachine:vm-141:########-####-####-####-############&navigator=vsphere.core.viTree.hostsAndClustersView

In this example VM's MOB ID is vm-141.

2. ​​​​​​Access the Virtual Machine Operations by opening a web browser to: 

https://ExamplevCenterFQDNorIP/mob/?moid=AuthorizationManager&method=enableMethods

3. Login with [e-mail] or an SSO admin user.

For example: [e-mail]

4. The following page appears.

5. In the first parameter entity value box, replace MOID with the VM's MOB ID

For example:

<!-- array start -->
<entity type="ManagedEntity" xsi:type="ManagedObjectReference">vm-141</entity>
<!-- array end -->

6. In the second parameter entity value box, enter this command:

<method>RelocateVM_Task</method>


 

7. Click on Invoke Method

8. Refresh the vCenter Server web client and the migration option for the VM should now be available. If the issues persist:

• If not yet available, restart the Web Client service or all vCenter Server services. For more information, see Stopping, Starting or Restarting VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.x & above services
  
  
• If the issues persists, see Migrate option is grayed out on a powered-off virtual machine