"invalidProperty = <VM group>" error when editing DRS rules or groups on cluster.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to change any DRS rule group or cluster level settings like DRS, the tasks fails with an error:
  invalidProperty = "VM Group"

Environment

vCenter Server 7.x
vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

A DRS rule is still configured which references a host or VM group that is no longer present in the vCenter Server. The error appears since DRS rules cannot point to a null value. 

Resolution

Note: Before proceeding, ensure to take a snapshot for the vCenter VM. If there are vCenter Servers in Enhanced Linked Mode, please take offline snapshots for all the vCenter VMs.

• To remove every DRS rule in vCenter from every cluster:

1. 1. SSH to vCenter Server as root.
      
      
   2. Stop the VPXD service
      service-control --stop vpxd
      
      
   3. Access the vCenter Server database:
      /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -d VCDB -U postgres
      
      
   4. Remove every DRS rule in vCenter from every cluster:
      update VPX_COMPUTE_RESOURCE set RULES_INFO ='';
      
      
   5. Exit the vCenter Server database:
      /q 
      
      
   6. Start the VPXD service and any other dependent services
      service-control --start --all