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

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vSphere Client Alert: The following warning is reported for one or more ESXi hosts:
  "Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host in [Cluster-Name]. The operation is not allowed in the current state. This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of DRS."
• Trigger: The event typically occurs during or immediately after virtual machine backup operations (e.g., Veeam) or snapshot consolidation tasks.
• Log Patterns:
• vCenter (var/log/vmware/vpxd.log): warning vpxd[...] [Originator@6876 sub=MoResGroup] Receive ConfigIssue when processing RP updates from host [vim.HostSystem:host-###] type vim.fault.InvalidState on ManagedObject vim.ResourcePool:resgroup-##
• ESXi (var/run/log/hostd.log): Er(163) Hostd[...] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmsvc.vm:...] Invalid transition requested (VM_STATE_REMOVE_SNAPSHOT -> VM_STATE_RECONFIGURING): Invalid state

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x, 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 7.x, 8.x

Cause

This is caused by a transient synchronization conflict between vCenter Server and the ESXi management agent (hostd). When DRS attempts to synchronize resource pool specifications while a Virtual Machine on that host is locked in a high-priority state (such as VM_STATE_REMOVE_SNAPSHOT), the host rejects the reconfiguration request. DRS retries this sync periodically; however, if the operation takes long enough, vCenter triggers the warning alarm.

Resolution

The warning is generally non-disruptive and does not impact VM availability. To clear the alarm, use one of the following options:

1. vMotion: Migrate any single virtual machine from the affected host to another host in the cluster.
2. Restart Management Agents: Restart the hostd and vpxa services via SSH. Refer Restarting Management Agents in ESXi
   
   /etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
   
   

For further assistance, see Contact Broadcom Support

Additional Information

If logs indicate Admission failure or Out of memory, refer to KB Unable to apply DRS resource settings due to admission failure on ESXi host , as those symptoms indicate physical resource exhaustion requiring a host reboot.