HCX - vMotion/Cold/RAV Migration unsupported for VMs having IOMMU enabled

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• VMs with the IOMMU feature enabled that are migrated using HCX vMotion or RAV will experience issues such as hanging or crashing after successful instantiation on the target side.
• When using Cold Migration, which also relies on vMotion technology, the VM will power on normally at the target side without any issues, but the IOMMU settings will not be applied.

Environment

This applies to all HCX releases.

Cause

HCX vMotion/Cold & Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) migration types are currently unsupported for workload VMs having IOMMU feature enabled.

Resolution

HCX software release 4.10.2 now includes validations in the migration wizard to prevent VMs with this feature (IOMMU) enabled from being migrated using HCX vMotion/Cold or RAV.
VMware HCX 4.10.2 Release Notes

Note: If the user needs to migrate VMs with the IOMMU feature enabled, they can:

• Uncheck the IOMMU feature in the VM settings at the source, migrate using vMotion/Cold/RAV, and then re-enable IOMMU on the target vCenter after migration.
• Use other migration types like VR Bulk, which support the IOMMU feature.
• If running HCX 4.10 or later, HCX-assisted vMotion (HAV) can also be used for migration.

Additional Information

Workload VMs migrated to the target side using HCX vMotion/Cold/RAV that are experiencing guest crashes or hangs can be rebooted to reset the settings.
Alternatively, the IOMMU feature can be re-enabled in the VM settings to fix the issue. Refer Activate IO/MMU Virtualization Settings