vMotion fails at 20% - Host advanced setting: Migrate.Enabled to 0

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

 Live vMotion fails at 20%

 VMKping's on vmotion vmk's between ESXihosts successful

vCenter reports errors: "Host Migrate failed at" - "with fault vmodl.fault.SystemError"

Vmotion successful if VM is powered off

Vmotion fails if:

• vm nic is connected or disconnected
• Storage vMotion with local storage
• Dual Nic vMotion
• single uplink vMotion
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 

Cause

Can be triggered due to a duplicate IP address on network. 

Resolution

Reset the Migrate.Enabled setting to 1:

1. Connect vSphere or VMware Infrastructure Client to your vCenter Server.
2. Click on the ESX host.
3. Click the Configuration tab.
4. Click Advanced Settings under Software.
5. Select Migrate and change Migrate.Enabled to 0.
6. Click OK and close.
7. Click on Advanced Settings.
8. Select Migrate and change Migrate.Enabled to 1.
9. Click OK and then Close.

Note: This issue may re-occur even after applying the workaround if a duplicate IP occurs. 

Additional Information

If these steps do not resolve the issue, try increasing the timeout for migration network operations after Step 4 and then continue with the remaining steps. Also, ensure to repeat these steps on the destination host.

 

To increase the timeout for migration network operations:

Click the Configuration tab.

Click Advanced Settings under Software > Migrate.

Change Migrate.NetTimeout to 60 seconds. The default is 20 seconds.

Click OK and then Close.

 

Related KBs: 

 

VxRail: vMotion fails with error "A general system error occurred: Invalid fault"