SRM Planned Migration fails - The operation is not allowed in the current state. The VM is in invalid state.

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

1. Planned Migration fails to recover VMs 

2. VMs appear as invalid on the recovery hosts 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 
VMware Site Recovery Manager 

Cause

VMs are not powering ON due to a compatibility issue between the ESXi version and the VM hardware version.

VMware-dr.log: 

-->    (dr.recovery.RecoveryResult) {
-->       runKey = 6651784,
-->       operation = "failover",
-->       options = (dr.recovery.RecoveryOptions) {
-->          note = <unset>,
-->          syncData = false,
-->          plannedFailover = true,
-->          migrateEligibleVms = true,
-->          skipProtectionSiteOperations = true,
-->          autoAnswerPrompts = false,
-->          recoveryPoint = <unset>
-->       },
-->       plan = 'dr.recovery.RecoveryPlan:cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-############:########-9f7d-470d-ba13-94c94e3433d7',
-->       planName = "Production => Recovery",
-->       planDescription = "",
-->       user = "Broadcom\Jose",
-->       startTime = "2025-06-14T11:27:04.623939Z",
-->       stopTime = "2025-06-14T11:33:38.635329Z",
-->       executionTimeInSeconds = 394,
-->       totalPausedTimeInSeconds = 0,
-->       resultState = "errors",
-->       warningCount = 0,
-->       errorCount = 3,
-->       poweredOnVms = 4,
-->       errorStateVms = 0,
-->       successfullyRecoveredVms = 4,
-->       ipCustomizedVms = 4,
-->       errorIpCustomizedVms = 3,
-->       poweredOffVms = 4,
-->       warnings = <unset>,
-->       errors = (vmodl.MethodFault) [
-->          (vim.fault.InvalidState) {
-->             faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->             faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->                (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->                   key = "com.vmware.vim.vpxd.vm.connectionState",
-->                   arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->                      (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                         key = "connectionState",
-->                         value = "invalid"
-->                      }
-->                   ],
-->                   message = "The VM is in invalid state."

-->             msg = "The operation is not allowed in the current state."
-->          },
-->          (vim.fault.InvalidState) {
-->             faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->             faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->                (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->                   key = "com.vmware.vim.vpxd.vm.connectionState",
-->                   arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->                      (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                         key = "connectionState",
-->                         value = "invalid"
-->                      }

hostd.log:

2025-06-14T12:28:29.973Z verbose hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Registering virtual machine [2378]: /vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx

2025-06-14T12:28:29.974Z verbose hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Disk cache flushed

2025-06-14T12:28:29.975Z info hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Setting failover status to false

2025-06-14T12:28:29.984Z info hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Event 1541034 : Virtual machine Blue on cisco.broadcom.com in cluster cisco.broadcom.com in ha-datacenter uses hardware version 21, which is no longer supported. Upgrade is recommended.

2025-06-14T12:28:29.984Z error hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] SetVmxVersion: invalid vmx version 'vmx-21'

2025-06-14T12:28:29.985Z warning hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] SetEnvironmentBrowser: VM version '21' not supported on this host

2025-06-14T12:28:29.985Z info hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Failed to load virtual machine

2025-06-14T12:28:29.985Z warning hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Failed to load VM from vigor during register Fault cause: vmodl.fault.NotSupported

2025-06-14T12:28:29.985Z info hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] Marking VirtualMachine invalid

2025-06-14T12:28:29.985Z info hostd[4418312] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:5223f112########-4c1f313c7#######/468df565-####-####-####-e4434b######/Blue.vmx opID=583e80a7-009a-41fd-9112-763d543a5374-failover:27b3:2b3c:e90c:38cf:4196-93-01-2e-167f user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\SRM-cfa698b4-4e68-4b91-b7c0-adbfbe54c4b7] State Transition (VM_STATE_INITIALIZING -> VM_STATE_INVALID_CONFIG)

Resolution

Upgrade the VM Hardware Compatibility of Virtual Machines.

ESXi hosts and compatible virtual machine hardware versions (312100)