Cloning VM fails with error : The operation is not supported on the object. The host xxx-xxx-XXXX does not support clone rekey vTA or NKP VMs

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• VM cloning fails when a new VM is encrypted via Storage Policy.
• The following error is  encountered when trying to clone a VM, error:

The operation is not supported on the object. The host does not support clone rekey vTA or NKP VMs.

• In vpxd.log file, you can see lines similar to:

<timestamp>  error vpxd[06171] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=<opid>] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-64545 -- xxxxxx -- StorageResourceManager -- vim.StorageResourceManager.applyRecommendation: :vmodl.fault.NotSupported
--> Result:
--> (vmodl.fault.NotSupported) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "com.vmware.vim.vpxd.encryption.CloneRekeyVTAOrNKPNotSupported",
-->          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->             (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                key = "hostName",
-->                value = "<hostname>"

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware ESXi Server 7.x

Cause

The source VM is not encrypted and the ESXi host is 7.x

Resolution

• Encrypt the source VM and retry the clone process.

OR

• Upgrade ESXi to version 8.x

Additional Information

According to Clone an Encrypted Virtual Machine, please change the keys for the cloned virtual machine as by default, the cloned virtual machine is created with the same keys as its parent.

Best practice is to change the cloned virtual machine keys to ensure that multiple virtual machines do not have the same keys.

Decide upon a shallow or deep recrypt, see Clone an Encrypted Virtual Machine for more information.