Cross vDS vMotion of a VM between clusters fails during the compatibility check

Products

• VMware NSX
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cross vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) vMotion of a VM between clusters fails during the compatibility check.
• You see this error in Virtual Machine migration wizard in the vSphere Web Client:
  Incorrect destination network is selected. Review compatibility section for more details.
  
  The compatibility field displays a message similar to:
  "Currently connected network interface" 'Network adapter (X)' cannot use network 'DPortGroup (Y) (DSwitch (Z))', because "the destination distributed switch has a different version or vendor than the source distributed switch".
  
  

Environment

VMware NSX for vSphere 6.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the vCenter Server performs network compatibility checks when initiating a vMotion to prevent configuration issues between distributed switches that are on different versions.

Resolution

This is an expected behavior in a mixed VMware vSphere/vDS version environment as compatibility checks require the source and destination vDS are of the same version. 

For cross vDS vMotion to be successful, the source and destination vDS should be on the same version.

To resolve this issue, ensure the source and destination vDS are of the same version.

For example:

• Source vDS version 6.0.0 vMotion to destination vDS version 6.0.0
• Source vDS version 6.5.0 vMotion to destination vDS version 6.5.0

Workaround:
There are 2 available options to work around this issue:

• Workaround 1: When cross migrating VMs from a source vSphere 6 cluster to a destination vSphere 6.5 cluster, a standard vSwitch can be created on the vSphere 6.5 cluster. VMs on the source 6.0 cluster must also be migrated to a standard switch to provide a supported migration path. Afterwards, the VMs can be migrated to the vDS that is on version 6.5.
• Workaround 2: When cross migrating VMs from a source vSphere 6 cluster to a destination vSphere 6.5 cluster, a vDS of the version 6.0.0 can be created on the destination vSphere 6.5 cluster. After a successful VM migration, the vDS version 6.0.0 can be upgraded to version 6.5.0.

Additional Information

For more information about Network Compatability checks during vMotion between vCenter instances, see the Network Compatibility Checks During vMotion Between vCenter Server Instances section in the vCenter Server 6.5 and Host Management guide.

Impact/Risks:
Cannot cross vDS vMotion or vMotion a VM.