Unable to live Storage vMotion the VMX/Swap/other configuration files for a Clustered Virtual Machine (VM) with SCSI bus sharing enabled.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to Storage vMotion the VMX/Swap/other configuration files for a Clustered Virtual Machine (VM) with SCSI bus sharing enabled while the VM is powered ON.

• The following error is seen when attempting to migrate : "Unable to prepare migration. At least one disk is on a physically shared bus. Migration is not supported for the current VM configuration"

• This occurs even when only migrating non-clustered disks (disks on a separate SCSI controller with Bus Sharing set to 'None').
  
  
• The compatibility check may show as successful, but the task fails immediately upon initiation.

Environment

VMware vCenter 8.0U3 or later

Cause

• This is an expected behavior post upgrade to vSphere 8.0 Update 3 and later. 

• Fast-suspend-resume (FSR) is not permitted for virtual machines (VMs) in a shared-disk clustering configuration.

• Although FSR is not supported for these VM types, the operation was not blocked in earlier vSphere versions. The restriction is now enforced to ensure cluster data integrity.

• The VM's /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<VM name>/vmware.log indicates that FSR is not supported: 

  ####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - VigorTransportProcessClientPayload: opID##############-auto-354v-h5:########-###### seq=1215062: Receiving Migrate.PrepareSource request.
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - MigrateVMXdrToSpec: type: 2 srcIp=<127.0.0.1> dstIp=<127.0.0.1> mid=############## uuid=############## priority=no checksumMemory=no maxDowntime=0 latencyAware=yes diskOpFile= srcLogIp=<<unknown>> dstLogIp=<<unknown>> ftPrimaryIp=<<unknown>> ftSecondaryIp=<<unknown>>
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - MigrateVMXdrToSpec: encryptedVMotion: 0
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - MigrateVMXdrToSpec: type 2 unsharedSwap 1 memMinToTransfer 0 cpuMinToTransfer 0 numDisks 0 numStreamIps 0 numFtStreamIps 0
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - Received migrate 'to' request for mid id ##############, src ip <127.0.0.1>, dst ip <127.0.0.1>(invalidate source config).
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### Er(02) vmx - Migrate: FSR is not supported for disks on a physically shared bus.
####-##-##T##:##:##.#### In(05) vmx - VigorTransport_ServerSendResponse opID=##############-auto-3574v-h5:########-###### : Completed Migrate.PrepareSource request with messages in 262 US.

Resolution

Workaround:

• With downtime (Offline\Cold Migration): Power off the VM and then migrate it using the "Change storage only" option.

• Without downtime (Online\Hot Migration): Perform the migration online by selecting the "Change both compute resource and storage" option.

Additional Information

• For more information on similar restrictions introduced in vSphere 8.0 U3, see:
  • [Performing hot-add of CPU/Memory/Controller on Clustered VM fails (KB 389070)](https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/389070)
  • [Error: "Device is a SCSI controller engaged in bus-sharing" during migration (KB 338634)](https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/338634)
• If these steps do not resolve the issue, please contact [Broadcom Support](https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/contact-support).