After converting a vSAN stretched cluster to a standard vSAN cluster, vCenter VM could not be powered on due to "swapobj: SwapObjCreate:576: Error returned from vmklink call: Failure"

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

After converting a vSAN stretched cluster to a standard vSAN cluster, vCenter VM could not be powered on due to "swapobj: SwapObjCreate:576: Error returned from vmklink call: Failure"

Example

From vmkernel.log

2025-09-11T15:42:15.242Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:16928608)swapobj: SwapObjDumpVmklinkResponse:1493: {ID:0x23f; type:CREATE; ret:{status:bad0001; open:{lock:; dev:s/volumes/vsan:52bf289a8a03dc68-e692d5c0f8dbe889/eeae7f68-a4f2-7a0e-7927-############/VMware vCenter Server $
2025-09-11T15:42:15.242Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:16928608)swapobj: SwapObjCreate:576: Error returned from vmklink call: Failure
2025-09-11T15:42:15.242Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:16928608)Swap: 3789: status=Failure swapFilePath=/vmfs/volumes/vsan:52bf289a8a03dc68-################/eeae7f68-a4f2-7a0e-7927-############/VMware vCenter Server Appliance-07b4f87e.vswp
2025-09-11T15:42:15.242Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu125:16928608)WARNING: Swap: 3791: Failed to create swap file '/vmfs/volumes/vsan:52bf289a8a03dc68-################/eeae7f68-a4f2-7a0e-7927-############/VMware vCenter Server Appliance-07b4f87e.vswp' : Failure
2025-09-11T15:42:15.242Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu125:16928608)VM: 672: Failed swap creation: Failure

Environment

VMware vSAN (All Versions)

Cause

When the vSAN stretched cluster was converted to a standard vSAN cluster, not all storage policies in use had been modified to reflect the cluster's new layout.  When vCenter was powered off and powered back on, it was not able to create a new swap file as the storage policy in use by vCenter was not compliant with the current cluster configuration.  

Example

We see below that the policy in use by the vCenter's namespace is calling for (\"subFailuresToTolerate\" i1).  As the vSAN stretched cluster was disabled and all fault domains have been removed this policy is no longer compliant with the cluster layout. 

/usr/lib/vmware/osfs/bin/objtool getAttr -u eeae7f68-a4f2-7a0e-7927-############|grep Policy
Policy:((\"stripeWidth\" i1) (\"cacheReservation\" i0) (\"proportionalCapacity\" i100) (\"hostFailuresToTolerate\" i1) (\"forceProvisioning\" i0) (\"spbmProfileId\" \"c3eb1e68-1c7b-4830-9410-############\") (\"spbmProfileGenerationNumber\" l+1) (\"replicaPreference\" \"Performance\") (\"iopsLimit\" i0) (\"checksumDisabled\" i0) (\"subFailuresToTolerate\" i1) (\"spbmProfileName\" \"VXRAIL-SYSTEM-STORAGE-PROFILE\") (\"locality\" \"None\"))

Resolution

To investigate this issue please open a case with VMware Support.