Storage vmotion tasks fails with the error "The source detected that the destination failed to resume ...Timed out waiting for migration data."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When attempting a Storage vMotion for a virtual machine, the task fails with the following error message

  The source detected that the destination failed to resume ...Timed out waiting for migration data.

• Both the source datastore and the destination datastore appears healthy on the vCenter server

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.x

VMware ESX 9.x

Cause

The Storage vMotion task failed because the ESXi host detected a Permanent Device Loss (PDL) state on the device backing the source datastore.

A PDL occurs when the ESXi host receives a specific SCSI sense code from the storage array indicating that the LUN is no longer available or has been permanently removed. In this specific scenario, the host entered a retry failover loop following a previous storage disconnection. Because the host is stuck in this loop, it cannot successfully read the source files to copy them to the destination, causing the migration to time out.

Cause Validation:

Upon reviewing the /var/run/log/hostd.log file on the ESXi host, below events are reported during svmotion

2026-01-13T19:56:01.573Z info hostd[2101080] [Originator@6876 sub=Vcsvc.VMotionDst.538855815256016068 opID=m6c01d5h-10805722-auto-6flqz-h5:72213512-26-01-b7-ebae] ResolveCb: Failed with fault: (vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault) {
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "msg.checkpoint.migration.noprogress",
-->          message = "Timed out waiting for migration data.
--> ",
-->       }
-->    ],
-->    reason = "Timed out waiting for migration data.
--> ",
-->    msg = "Timed out waiting for migration data.
--> "
--> }

In the same log file, lost access to volume events are seen for the source datastore where the virtual machine currently resides

2026-01-013T19:55:36.835Z info hostd[2101183] [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr] Event 75764 : Lost access to volume 64c774bd-########-####-############ (Datastore1) due to connectivity issues. Recovery attempt is in progress and outcome will be reported shortly.

In the /var/run/log/vmkernel.log file, PDL error and path failover events are seen on the device backing the volume Datastore1 (datastore where the virtual machine currently resides)

2026-01-13T19:55:25.226Z cpu0:2097768)WARNING: NMP: nmpDeviceAttemptFailover:647: Retry world failover device "naa.6000d#########################" - issuing command 0x45b997296f88
2026-01-13T19:55:25.226Z cpu2:2097233)WARNING: NMP: nmpCompleteRetryForPath:364: Retry cmd 0x28 (0x45b997296f88) to dev "naa.6000d#########################" failed on path "vmhba#:C#:T#:L#" H:0x0 D:0x2 P:0x0 Valid sense data: 0x5 0x25 0x0.
2026-01-13T19:55:25.226Z cpu2:2097233)WARNING: NMP: nmp_PathDetermineFailure:3527: Cmd (0x28) PDL error (0x5/0x25/0x0) - path vmhba#:C#:T#:L# device naa.6000d######################### - triggering path failover
2026-01-13T19:55:25.226Z cpu2:2097233)WARNING: NMP: nmpCompleteRetryForPath:394: Logical device "naa.6000d#########################": awaiting fast path state update before retrying failed command again...

Resolution

To resolve the Storage vMotion failure, the underlying PDL state on the host must be cleared.

Since the affected host is stuck in a software-level retry loop, plan for a maintenance window and reboot the affected ESXi host.