Datastore selection list fails to populate during Storage vMotion after migrating VMs from one host to another.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms

• When initiating a Storage vMotion or "Change Compute and Storage" migration operation, the wizard hangs at the Select Datastore step.

• The list of available datastores fails to populate.

• The user interface remains in a "loading" state indefinitely without timing out or displaying a specific error code.
  
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

• Prior to the occurrence of the issue, VMs were migrated from one host to another.

• The issue occurred because the source host did not release its metadata lock on the datastore after the VMs were moved. causing the datastores not to populate in the SvMotion wizard.

• The /var/log/vmkernel.log on the ESXi host where the VM resides shows the source host (MAC address) holds the lock to the datastore.

2026-02-10T03:47:30.998Z cpu29:2100420)DLX: 2651: vol '#######-', lock at 234246144: Lock type: 10C00001. owner(s) MAC: #########a:
2026-02-10T03:47:30.998Z cpu29:2100420)[type 10c00001 offset 234246144 v 256360586, hb offset 3960832
gen 43, mode 1, owner 6698f1ef-9174d4ce-####-########## mtime 121924890

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the locks must be released by the source host.

1. Identify the Source Host: Cross-reference the MAC address found in the vmkernel.log (e.g., ##:##:##:##) with your hardware inventory.

2. Release the Lock: Reboot the identified source host. This will release the active lock on the VMFS volume by the source host.

   • Note: Ensure the host is in Maintenance Mode and contains no powered on VMs before rebooting.