vMotion fails for all VMs to a specific ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to perform a live vMotion of a virtual machine (VM) to a specific ESXi host, the migration fails. The following symptoms are observed:

• Powered-off VMs migrate successfully to the host, but live migrations fail.
• Other hosts in the cluster can perform live migrations without issue.
• In the hostd.log on the source host, the following message is seen: 
  

  <timestamps> UTC In(166) Hostd[########]: -->          message = "The operation was cancelled by the user.",

• In the hostd.log on the destination host, the following message is seen: 


  <timestamps> UTC In(166) Hostd[########]: -->          message = "Failed to start migration: Not supported.
  

• Analyzing the host configuration via command line shows the migration option is disabled: /> get /config/Migrate/intOpts/Enabled Current value:0

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.3

Cause

The issue occurs because the Migrate.Enabled advanced setting on the ESXi host is set to 0. This setting must be enabled (1) to support hot migration (vMotion) on the host.

Resolution

1. Enable the migration setting in the ESXi advanced configuration to resolve this issue.
2. Log in to the ESXi host via SSH or the DCUI.
3. Run the following command to check the current status of the migration setting: 
   esxcfg-advcfg -g /Migrate/Enabled
   
   
4. If the value is 0, run the following command to enable it: esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /Migrate/Enabled


Alternatively,  modify this in the vSphere Client:

• • 1. Select the ESXi host.
    2. Go to the Configure tab.
    3. Under System, select Advanced System Settings.
    4. Click Edit and search for Migrate.Enabled.
    5. Change the value to 1 and click OK.
    6. Attempt the vMotion again to verify the fix.