Cross vCenter Server export of a virtual machine with Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion fails to complete and the export wizard hangs without displaying any error message

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to perform an Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion export of a virtual machine, the Export wizard hangs indefinitely in the vCenter UI without displaying an explicit error message.
  
  
• Attempts to establish an SSH session from the source vCenter Server to the destination vCenter Server's FQDN or IP address results in a connection timeout error.

ssh: connect to host vcenter.domain.com port 22: Connection timed out 

• Attempting a TCP connection test (e.g., using nc -vz <ESXi_IP> 8000) from the source to destination ESXi host on required ports returns a Connection refused error:

nc: connect to <ESXi_IP> port 8000 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

• The /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/vsphere_client_virgo.log on the source vCenter Server indicates a failure to connect or add the destination vCenter Server:

YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS [ERROR] -nio-127.0.0.1-5090-exec-118 70006083 100249 200014 com.vmware.vise.mvc.controllers.AlienVcController 
{error=Failed to add to alien vCenter server - AlienVcDescriptor [ssoDomain=null, url=https://##.##.###.##:443/sdk, vmodlVersion=null, thumbprint=null,thumbprintDigestAlgorithm=SHA-1, guid=null, connected=false], message=null} java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The required ports for cross vCenter Server operations are blocked in the environment, preventing successful communication between the source and destination systems.

Resolution

• Verify and ensure that below required network ports are open between the vCenter Server instances and ESXi hosts.

Required ports:
Port 8000 on the ESXi host for vMotion.
Port 902 on the ESXi host for NFC.
Port 443 between the two vCenter Server instances.

For the list of all supported ports and protocols in VMware products, see the VMware Ports and Protocols Tool™ at https://ports.broadcom.com/.

• After confirming network connectivity and ensuring that the required ports are open, reattempt the Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion.

Additional Information

For more information about the required ports and configuration for cross vCenter Server vMotion and export operations, refer to the Broadcom vSphere 8.0 Technical Documentation:

Reference: Export or Clone a Virtual Machine with Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion