VMotion fails if source and target ESX Hosts cannot resolve the other's hostname

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VMotion or Cold Migration may fail if the source and target ESX hosts cannot resolve each other’s hostname. This happens when VitualCenter Server 2.0 is used to VMotion or Cold Migrate between ESX 2.5.3 hosts.

You may see the following error message:

Network copy failed for file [storage]/abc/abc.nvram

Environment

VMware ESX Server 2.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x

Resolution

To resolve this problem you must verify connectivity between each ESX host by hostname

Perform the following tasks before starting VMotion:

1. Ping the hostname of the target ESX host from the source ESX host.
2. Ping the hostname of the source ESX host from the target ESX host.
3. Ping the hostnames of both ESX hosts from the VirtualCenter Server host.

For more information about pinging an ESX server, see Testing network connectivity with the Ping command (1003486).

If ping fails for any of these tests, check your DNS settings. Page numbers 48-49 of the Server Configuration Guide explains how to set up DNS and Routing using VI client. The guide can be found at the following URL:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_server_config.pdf

If you do not use a DNS server for ESX hosts, edit the /etc/hosts file on each ESX host so that it contains the IP and hostname of other ESX Server hosts.

A sample /etc/hosts file is shown below.

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.16.23.89 target-esx
208.48.65.105 vc-server

Also, on the VirtualCenter Server machine, put the IP and hostnames of all ESX hosts that are managed by VirtualCenter in the \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file.

After configuring the name resolution, restart VirtualCenter 2.x services and try VMotion.