vMotion fails with the error: A general system error occurred. Invalid fault

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• vMotion operation of a virtual machine fails
• You see this error:
  
  A general system error occurred. Invalid Fault
  
  
• After the vMotion failure, if the virtual machine is powered-on, it becomes available on the network, but is not accessible in vCenter Server
• In the /var/log/vmware/hostd.log file of the ESX hosts, you see entries similar to:
  
  [2009-09-01 23:31:19.697 'VMotionSrc (1251862166980371)' 88214448 info] ResolveCb: VMX reports gone = false
  [2009-09-01 23:31:19.698 'VMotionSrc (1251862166980371)' 88214448 info] ResolveCb: Failed with fault: (vim.fault.Timedout) {
  dynamicType = <unset>,
  msg = ""
  }
  [2009-09-01 23:50:25.923 'ha-eventmgr' 3076449440 info] Event 1 : Configuration file for on <hostname> in ha-datacenter cannot be found
  [2009-09-01 23:50:25.923 'vm:/<path to vmx>' 3076449440 info] State Transition (VM_STATE_INITIALIZING -> VM_STATE_INVALID_LOAD)
  [2009-09-01 23:50:25.924 'vm:/<path to vmx'> 3076449440 info] Marking VirtualMachine invalid

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Resolution

This issue may occur if the .vmx configuration file of the virtual machine cannot be located. The virtual machine's datastore may be resignatured, or the virtual machine folder may be renamed or moved.

 

If the virtual machine's folder or the .vmx file has been renamed or moved:

1. Shut down the virtual machine using a RDP, console or SSH connection.
2. In the vSphere client connection to vCenter Server, right-click the virtual machine and click Remove from Inventory.
3. Locate the virtual machine folder and configuration file using one of these methods:
   
   1. In ESXi – df-
      Note: Alternatively, you can use the ls -l /vmfs/volumes command to determine the UUID of datastores.
      
      
   2. Use the vSphere clients Datastore Browser. For more information, see the Working with Files in the Datastore Browser section of the Basic System Administration Guide.
   3. Connect to the ESXi host as root using an SSH client.
      
      Note: For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH)
      
      
      
   4. Run this command to determine the UUID of the datastore of the .vmx file:
      
      find /vmfs/volumes -name vmname.vmx -print
      
      Note: The .vmx file name in this command is case sensitive. If you are uncertain of the case, use -iname instead of -name.
      
      
   5. To correlate the datastore UUID with the datastore name, run this command:
      
4. If the .vmx file for the virtual machine is found and the datastore name is identified in Step 3, add the virtual machine back to inventory. For more information, see the Return a virtual machine or Template to vCenter Server portion section of the Basic System Administration Guide.

Additional Information

The issue may also appear due to storage issues. A rescan of the storage may also resolve this issue. For more information see, Performing a rescan of the storage on an ESXi host (1003988)
Performing a rescan of the storage on an ESXi host