Unable to clone virtual machine error message: Non- compliant with storage policy

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

In a vSAN cluster, all VMs on a specific datastore show a non-compliant status with their assigned storage policy, despite having the same default policy as the datastore. No policy changes were made, yet cloning a VM fails with an error stating a policy mismatch.

 

Environment

vSAN (all versions)

Cause

The VM policy requires # fault domains with all-flash storage, but only # are available, causing a datastore mismatch

.

vSAN requires at least three fault domains to support FTT=1. Each fault domain consists of one or more hosts. Fault domain definitions must acknowledge physical hardware constructs that might represent a potential zone of failure, for example, an individual computing rack enclosure.

If possible, use at least four fault domains. Three fault domains do not support certain data evacuation modes, and

vSAN

is unable to reprotect data after a failure. In this case, you need an additional fault domain with capacity for rebuilding, which you cannot provide with only three fault domains.

If fault domains are enabled,

vSAN

applies the active virtual machine storage policy to the fault domains instead of the individual hosts.

Calculate the number of fault domains in a cluster based on the

Failures to tolerate

(FTT) attribute from the storage policies that you plan to assign to virtual machines.

number of fault domains = 2 * FTT + 1

 

If a host is not a member of a fault domain,

vSAN 

interprets it as a stand-alone fault domain.

Resolution

Adjusted fault domains to meet the policy requirements as per the Fault Domain Tech Document

After alignment, the datastore became compliant and successfully cloned the virtual machine.