Cross-site virtual machine clone operations experience slowness and stall around 34 percent

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

During cross-site virtual machine clone operations, the process experiences severe slowness and stalls around 34%. Execution times vary drastically depending on the network connection, while clone operations performed within the same cluster complete successfully. Clone tests performed on a virtual machine from source host to destination hosts demonstrated execution times varying between 1 hour and 24 hours.

Environment

VMware ESXi

VMware vCenter Server

Cause

Network performance variations across the physical MPLS link handled by the network service provider.

Resolution

1. Engage the internal network administration team and the network service provider to isolate performance variations across the physical MPLS connection.
2. Monitor network metrics during cross-site clone operations to confirm connection stability once physical layer routing adjustments are implemented.

Additional Information

Refer to the VMware vSphere networking documentation for best practices and requirements for cross-vCenter clone operations.

Cross vCenter Migration and Clone requirements in VMware vSphere 6.x and later