Error During VM Migration in vCenter: "The object or item referred to could not be found"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

 

• VM migration/vMotion fails in vCenter.

• vCenter displays:

  "The object or item referred to could not be found"

• Hostd logs show errors indicating the VMX file cannot be found on the vSAN datastore.

 /var/log/hostd.log:

Unable to stat VM config file '/vmfs/volumes/vsan:<vsan-datastore>/<vm-uuid>/<vm-name>.vmx'. Error code 2: 'No such file or directory'
RegisterVm file check error: Unable to stat VM config file '/vmfs/volumes/vsan:<vsan-datastore>/<vm-uuid>/<vm-name>.vmx'.
Error code 2: 'No such file or directory':
Failed to register the VM: N3Vim5Fault8NotFound9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.NotFound)

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This issue can occur when an ESXi host becomes isolated from the vSAN cluster during a physical network uplink change.

The host may remain connected to vCenter and appear healthy, but the loss of vSAN connectivity results in an incomplete view of the vSAN datastore. During a vMotion or migration operation, the destination host cannot access the VM configuration files stored on vSAN, causing VM registration to fail.

Resolution

Verification:

1. Connect to the affected ESXi host via SSH.
2. Run:
   
   esxcli vsan cluster get
   
   
3. Verify that the host sees all expected vSAN cluster members.
   

   In a healthy cluster, the output should show all cluster members. For example:

   Sub-Cluster Member Count: 3
Sub-Cluster Member HostNames:
esxi01, esxi02, esxi03

   A host experiencing this issue may report output similar to:

   Sub-Cluster Member Count: 1
Sub-Cluster Member HostNames:
esxi03

   These values indicate that the host no longer sees the other vSAN cluster members and is operating as a single-node partition.
   In a healthy cluster, the Sub-Cluster Member Count should match the number of vSAN hosts in the cluster, and all hosts should appear in the Sub-Cluster Member HostNames list.
   
   
4. Validate the physical network status, VLAN tag configuration, and link state of the underlying physical network adapter uplinks (vmnic) assigned to the vSAN vmkernel adapter (vmk).