Virtual Machine Migration Fails with PCI Device Backing Not Accessible and RmInitAdapter Failed

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After powering on a VMware vSphere ESXi host, attempting to migrate a Virtual Machine (VM) to the target host fails due to compatibility issues.

The following warning or error is displayed during the migration attempt:
"Currently connected device" 'PCI device 0' uses backing '#########' [or '########'], which is not accessible".

Additionally, the var/run/log/vmkernel.log file contains errors similar to the following:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.maskZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu100:2105573)VMK_PCI: 599: ####:##:##.#: allocated 6 MSIX interrupts
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.maskZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu100:2105573)NVRM: GPU at ####:##:##.# has software scheduler ENABLED with policy BEST_EFFORT.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.maskZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu100:2105573)NVRM: GPU ####:##:##.#: Failed to copy vbios to system memory.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.maskZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu100:2105573)NVRM: GPU ####:##:##.#: RmInitAdapter failed! (0x##:0x##:###)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.maskZ In(182) vmkernel: cpu100:2105573)NVRM: rm_init_adapter failed for device 2

Environment

vCenter Server

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The NVIDIA GPU is not properly recognized by the driver at the hardware level, which causes the RmInitAdapter to fail during initialization.

Resolution

Engage the respective hardware vendor or NVIDIA Support.