Cannot connect to a virtual machine after migrating it using vMotion with a network card in a disconnected state

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After performing a vMotion of a virtual machine with a network card in a disconnected state, you experience these symptoms:

• Cannot reconnect to the virtual machine
• Attempting to reconnect to the virtual machine fails
• You see the error:
  
  Invalid Configuration Device 0

Note: A network card is in a disconnected state if the Connection option in the Edit Settings tab of a virtual machine is deselected.

Cause

This issue occurs because the virtual machine port did not get created on the destination ESXi host during vMotion.

Note: Only virtual machines connected to a vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) configured for static binding are affected.

Resolution

To work around this issue when you are unable to upgrade, trigger the creation of a new port by connecting the affected virtual machine to another portgroup and then moving it back to the original portgroup.

Additional Information