Error: Failed to start the Storage vMotion during DRS-initiated Storage vMotion for clustered VMs with shared disks""

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms: 

• SDRS tried to migrate VMs with shared disks 
  
  
• Event "A fatal internal error occurred. See the virtual machine's log for more details. Failed to start the SvMotion. Error during disk setup."
  
  
• The events can be seen under the Recent Tasks 

• Event " Unable to prepare migration. At least one disk is on a physically shared bus. Migration is not supported for the current VM configuration "

 

Environment

ESXi  9.x
ESXi 8.x 

 

Cause

VMs configured in a cluster with shared disks (using the multi-writer flag or SCSI Bus Sharing) do not support live Storage vMotion. However, if Storage DRS is enabled, it may automatically attempt a Storage vMotion to rebalance workloads or resolve resource contention. Because these migrations are unsupported for shared-disk configurations, these error events are generated when Storage DRS attempts them

Resolution

Implementing Storage DRS (SDRS) VM Overrides will mitigate the issue.  

Steps to configure VM Overrides: 

1. Login to vSphere UI > Select Datastore Cluster > Configure > VM Overrides > ADD 
   
   
   
2. Select VM / VMs > click Next
   
   
   
3. Configure the override > click Finish 

 

Additional Information

Change Storage DRS Automation Level for a Virtual Machine