vMotion tasks from old servers to new servers reports slowness and sometimes fails with "The target host does not support the virtual machine's current hardware requirements"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Some virtual machine in a host fails to migrate to another host with following error:
  "The target host does not support the virtual machine's current hardware requirements.
  Use a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled to create a uniform set of CPU features across the cluster, or use per-VM EVC for a consistent set of CPU features for a virtual machine and allow the virtual machine to be moved to a host capable of supporting that set of CPU features. See KB article 1003212 for cluster EVC information.
  com.vmware.vim.vmfeature.cpuid.ddpd_u"
• Logs on vCenter Server (/var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log) shows similar to below snippets:
  YYYY:MM:DDTHH:MM:SSZ info vpxd[pid] [Originator@6876 sub=VmCheck opID=<opID>] CompatCheck results: (vim.vm.check.Result) [
-->    (vim.vm.check.Result) {
-->       vm = 'vim.VirtualMachine:<VC GUID>:<vm-MoID>',
-->       host = 'vim.HostSystem:<VC GUID>:<host-MoID>',
-->       warning = (vmodl.MethodFault) [
-->          (vim.fault.NoGuestHeartbeat) {
-->             msg = "",
-->          }
-->       ],
-->       error = (vmodl.MethodFault) [
-->          (vim.fault.FeatureRequirementsNotMet) {
-->             faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->                (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->                   key = "com.vmware.vim.vmfeature.cpuid.ddpd_u",
-->                },
-->                (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->                   key = "com.vmware.vim.vpxd.vmcheck.featureRequirementsNotMet.useClusterOrPerVmEvc",
-->                }
-->             ],
-->             featureRequirement = (vim.vm.FeatureRequirement) [
-->                (vim.vm.FeatureRequirement) {
-->                   key = "cpuid.ddpd_u",
-->                   featureName = "cpuid.ddpd_u",
-->                   value = "Bool:Min:1"
-->                }
-->             ],
-->             host = 'vim.HostSystem:<VC GUID>:<host-MoID>',
-->             msg = "",
-->          }
-->       ]
-->    }
--> ]

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

Expected as it is due to the hardware version

Resolution

• Enable EVC mode, and this will mask out some features across cluster, ensuring vMotion compatibility. Or keep VMs at hardware version 19 if those extra features are not needed.
  • If there is vSAN in the environment, consider rebalancing in vSAN.