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

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2d.

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