In viewing task for VM, it is showing that DRS is turning on a VM

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• In VM > Monitor > Tasks, a task for "Power on virtual machine" is showing that DRS powered on the VM.
• The task is initiated by the System user.
• As seen below, the Tasks show the initiated user of system and that DRS is powering on the VM:
  

Environment

vSphere 8.x

vSphere 9.x

Cause

This is by design, the task will show the System user and will show DRS as powering on the VM if DRS is enabled on the cluster.  The actual initiated user request can be seen when viewing Events and not Tasks.

Resolution

View the event by browsing to Events instead of Tasks.  Then look for the initiated event of "Virtual Machine is Starting" and this will show the user ID that initiated the power on task.