Error: vSphere HA failover operation in progress stale alert

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vSphere clusters may display a persistent High Availability (HA) warning indicating a failover is in progress even when virtual machines are stable. This alert often persists after maintenance mode exit or after adding a host to the cluster.

• Cluster summary tab displays the following error: vSphere HA failover operation in progress in cluster #### and ####: 0 VMs being restarted, 1 VMs waiting for a retry, 0 VMs waiting for resources, 0 inaccessible vSAN VMs Configuration Issue.

• Virtual machines are operational and stable.

Environment

• VMware Center Server 7.x/8.x

• VMware vSAN 8.x, 9.0

• VMware VCF 9.0

Cause

A race condition occurs between vSAN rescanning and VM unprotection when vSphere HA is enabled. Changes such as ESXi host upgrades, vMotion migrations, or exiting Maintenance Mode can result in a synchronization mismatch in the Fault Domain Manager (FDM) database resulting in a stale alert/alarm.

Resolution

To reconcile the state and clear the stale alert:

1. Direct VM Action: Identify the VM associated with the alert and power it on. This forces the HA agent to verify the power state and update the FDM database. Once the alarm clears, the VM can be powered off if desired.
2. Cluster Reconfiguration (Alternative): If the specific VM is not easily identified, perform a non-disruptive reconfiguration of vSphere HA:
   • Navigate to Configure > Services > vSphere Availability.
   • Edit settings to toggle vSphere HA to OFF.
   • Wait for the "Unconfigure vSphere HA" task to complete on all hosts.
   • Toggle vSphere HA back to ON.

Note: This process is non-disruptive to running virtual machines.

Additional Information

Disabling and enabling VMware vSphere High Availability (vSphere HA)

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