vMotion failed due to a storage issue

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• vMotion failed with error message below
  
  Cannot migrate <vm name>


• From the source host /var/run/log/hostd.log, it shows that the host cannot load or open the configuration file.
  
  Hostd[2098703]: --> Unable to load configuration file '####.vmx'.
Hostd[2098703]: --> Cannot open file "####.vmx":
Device or resource busy.
Hostd[2098703]: --> Failed to establish transport connection.
Hostd[2098703]: --> Remote disconnected
  
  
• From the source host /var/run/log/vmkernel.log, it shows that there is an I/O issue with the storage. The configuration file cannot be loaded or opened due to the storage I/O issue.
  
  vmkernel: cpu17:4084112)Fil6: 4251: ioCtx: ####, world: 3865541, overallStatus: IO was aborted by VMFS via a virt-reset on the device, token: ####, tokenStatus: Success, txnToken: ####, txnTokenStatus: ####, totalIOSize: ####

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This message is logged for write operations when an ESXi host needs to stop I/O to a device/LUN. A Virtual Device Reset is used to stop the I/O to maintain data integrity.

Resolution

Refer KB Failed write command to write-quiesced partition with "error IO was aborted by VMFS via a virt-reset on the device" in VMware ESXi

To resolve this issue, investigate the reason why the host issued the Virtual Device Reset.
Typically, there are SCSI or other storage related errors before the virt-reset error message. These errors indicate the reason why the host needed to stop the I/O.
Example of errors that may precede a virt-reset condition: var/run/log/vmkernel.log
In the above example, the I/O is being aborted as there is no response from the fabric or storage array to I/O requests, which is likely an underlying storage issue. This results in a virt-reset as I/O needs to be stopped on the VMFS file system.