Event on ESXi hosts "Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Got a vCenter Server event on a particular host.

"Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host <ESXi HOST> in <DATACENTER>. The operation is not allowed in the current state. This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of DRS." 

With the following symptom: 

- The event starts while a running virtual machine is being backed up by a 3rd party backup solution.  

Environment

VMware vCenter Server
VMware vSphere ESXi

Resolution

Workaround: 

There are two options. 

1) Perform vMotion any virtual machine running on the target ESXi host. 

2) Restart ESXi host vpxa and hostd service on the target ESXi host. 

/etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart