Unable to unlock VM after cross VC vMotion when encryption is enabled

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When a Virtual Machine is migrated from one vCenter Server to another, it is in an invalid state and trying to "unlock" the VM fails with below error: 

 

Environment

vCenter Server 7.0 

vCenter Server 8.0

Cause

Issue can be caused due to Virtual Machines using a different encryption key than the one which is currently in use. Native Key Provider (NKP) used by affected VMs was removed, and new NKP was created using the same name. 

 

Resolution

Please find steps in following documentation on how to resolve the issue if able to restore original Native Key Provider: Resolve Missing Key Issues

 

If original NKP is no longer available, presently there is no way to work around this and a redeploy of VMs required.