Migrating a VM with HD Audio devices connected fails with error "Device 'HD audio ' has a backing type that is not supported"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Attempting to vMotion a virtual machine fails with the error:
  Virtual machine is configured to use a device that prevents the opration: Device "HD Audio" has a backing type that is not supported. This is a general limitation of the virtual machines's compatibility with ESXi version of the selected host.
• Virtual machine has HD audio device connected.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Resolution

There is no resolution.  vMotion is not allowed when an audio device is connected. This is by design. 

Workaround:
To perform a migration, the device needs to be disconnected or the vm will need to be powered off.

To disconnect the HD Audio device, the vmx file needs to be manually edited :

• Power off the VM
• SSH to the ESXi where the VM is registered
• Make a backup of the VMX file by copying it to another location
• Remove audio-device from .vmx-file: 

          cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore/VMname
          vi VMname.vmx

• Comment the following lines with # like below:

        #sound.autoDetect = "TRUE"
        #sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"
        #sound.fileName = "-1"
        #sound.present = "TRUE"
        #sound.pciSlotNumber = "35"

• Find the vmid for the affected VM:   vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
• Reload configuration for the VM:     vim-cmd vmsvc/reload <Vmid-of-VM>
• Power on the VM and attempt the migration again

Note: If unable to access via SSH, use the vSphere Client to access the VM's datastore and download the corresponding .vmx file. Once downloaded, use a text editor to make the above adjustments and then reupload the .vmx file with the changes into the datastore.

Additional Information

Tips for editing a .vmx file

Reloading a vmx file without removing the virtual machine from inventory