vMotion of a virtual machine fails with error: Insufficient capacity on each physical CPU

Products

• VMware Cloud Director
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to vMotion a virtual machine from an ESX/ESXi 4.x host to another
• Performing a vMotion on a virtual machine from an ESX/ESXi 4.x host to another fails
• You see the error:

Insufficient capacity on each physical CPU

• This issue occurs after the validation stage of vMotion completes

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x

Resolution

This issue occurs when the CPU resource reservations of the virtual machine exceed the available capacity on the target host.

 

To resolve this issue:

1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
2. Select "Virtual Machine" tab, expand CPU section.
3. Set the CPU reservations to a value lesser than the capacity of the ESX/ESXi host.

Note: If you do not require CPU reservations, set it to zero and let ESX/ESXi to manage the resource allocation. If you require CPU reservations, it is best to set up resource pools to manage the resource allocation.

 

For more information on reservations and limits, See the VMware vSphere Resource Management Guide.