Cannot vMotion virtual machines with physical mode RDM

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When vMotioning a virtual machine to another host, you experience these symptoms:

• The virtual machines with physical mode RDM fail to vMotion.
• Cannot vMotion the virtual machines, when the RDM pointer file is not visible from destination host.
• The virtual machine has one or more physical mode RDM volumes.
• The physical mode RDM pointer file is located on local datastore.

Environment

ESXi 5.x
ESXi 6.x
ESXi 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs only if the RDM pointer files are stored on a local or non-shared datastore.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure that the RDM pointer files are not stored on a local datastore.

 

To ensure that the RDM pointers files are not stored on a local datastore, validate the location of the destination datastore:

 

1. Identify where the RDM pointer files are stored:
    
   1. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
   2. Select the hard disk with the summary Mapped Raw LUN.
   3. Locate the path of the pointer file.
   4. Click Close.
       
2. Navigate to VM > Select Migrate > Change datastore.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Click Current Location.
5. Select the destination datastore.
6. Click OK.
   
   Note: Do not change the format.
    
7. Click Next.
8. Click Finish.

Additional Information

Migrating Virtual Machines with Raw Device Mappings - https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?legacyId=1005241