During large number of VMs power on, some VMs fail to power on with error "Failed to add DV Port in vmkernel: Status (bad0006)= Limit exceeded"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Issue/Introduction

• Large number of VMs being powered on and some VMs fail to power on with the following error:
  • Failed to add DV Port in vmkernel: Status (bad0006)= Limit exceeded

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Cause

The allocated memory for a large number of virtual distributed switch ports exceeds the dvsLargeHeap parameter (DVSLargeHeapMaxSize). The default is 300 in vSphere 7 and the maximum it can be increased in 2048.

Resolution

Increase the value of DVSLargeHeapMaxSize parameter on every affected ESXi host:

1. Verify the current configuration:  esxcli system settings advanced list -o /Net/DVSLargeHeapMaxSize
2. To update the setting:

1. • Put the host in Maintenance Mode
   • Run the CLI command:  esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Net/DVSLargeHeapMaxSize --int-value 512
   • Reboot the ESXi Host
   • Take the host out of Maintenance Mode