Unable to power on VMs due to pending Storage DRS tasks

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• In vCenter, you see many pending storage DRS tasks in the Recent Tasks panel or Monitor tab ->  Tasks and Events (Monitor -> Task and Events):

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server (all versions)

Cause

• You have " Enable I/O metrics for SDRS recommendations" enabled in the Storage DRS runtime rules and you subsequently encountered increased latency on the datastores that triggered a series of sVmotion tasks.

Resolution

• You can simply wait for the tasks to complete, but the time to completion may be significant, depending on how many tasks have been issued.
  
  
• If you wish to stop sVmotion activity (e.g. the sVMotions really aren't needed once the external latency issue has been resolved), disable Storage DRS to prevent further automated sVmotion activity, then cancel the pending tasks:
  
  
  • To disable sDRS, see KB: Enabling and disabling Storage DRS (SDRS) in the vSphere Client
  • To cancel the pending tasks, see KB: Clear stale tasks from the vCenter "Recent Tasks" panel
    
    
• Once all active tasks have completed and the pending tasks have been cleared, you should be able to power the VM(s) back on.
  
  
• If you are still unable to power the VM(s) on, please contact Broadcom Technical Support for further assistance. See KB: Creating and managing Broadcom support request (SR) cases.

 

Additional Information

• See also related TechDocs: Setting the Aggressiveness Level for Storage DRS