Datastore does not match current VM policy

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When attempting to clone the vSAN default storage policy, the vSAN datastore appears as incompatible with the reason: "Datastore does not match current VM policy."

• Trying to import an OVF template on this vSAN datastore also throws the same error:

• vSAN Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Capacity, the storage policy displayed under "With the policy" is not vSAN default storage policy.
  

• In some cases,Creating a VM with the vSAN Storage policy may fail with the above error.

• vSAN datastore may be listed as "incompatible" under storage policy:

Environment

VMware vSAN 7.x

VMware vSAN 8.x

Cause

The issue is triggered by a stale or unhealthy state of the vCenter Storage Policy Service (SPS). When a vSAN cluster is deployed or modified, the SPS may fail to correctly initialize or update the registration of the vSAN storage providers. This results in the vCenter being unable to validate that the vSAN datastore capabilities meet the requirements of the applied VM Storage Policy, leading to the compatibility error during the OVF import process.

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Check Service Status: 
   Log into the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH and verify if the vmware-vsan-health service is running using service-control --status vmware-vsan-health.
2. Start/Restart Services: 
   If the service is stopped, start it with service-control --start vmware-vsan-health. If it is running but the error persists, restart the Storage Policy Service: service-control --restart vmware-sps.
3. . If the problem is still in place after restarting the service above, then re-synchronize the storage providers from vCenter by doing the following:
   • Select the vCenter in the left pane
   • Select the Manage/Configure tab
   • Select Storage providers
   • Click on  Synchronize Storage Providers, the icon that looks like a stack of disks with the circular red arrows.
   
4. VCSA Reboot: If services fail to initialize due to API timeouts (often seen with high system uptime), perform a graceful reboot of the VCSA. 

The service restart forced a reload of the storage provider capabilities and refreshed the communication between the vCenter Server and the vSAN datastore. This re-established the healthy state of the Storage Policy Service allowing the vSAN datastore to be correctly identified as a compatible target for the OVF deployment.

Additional Information

VASA provider registration Troubleshooting
VASA Provider Registration Troubleshooting