WSFC VM Power On Failure: Unable to create virtual SCSI device after Cross-vCenter vMotion to VCF 9

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When migrating virtual machines (VMs) configured with Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) and shared VMDKs from vSphere 8.x to VCF 9.x using Cross-vCenter vMotion (XVM), the VMs fail to power on.

Symptoms:

• The virtual machine powers on successfully if the shared VMDKs are removed from the configuration.
• The following errors appear in the vSphere Client or vmware.log:

Unable to create virtual SCSI device for scsi1:0, '/vmfs/volumes/####/####/####_4.vmdk'Failed to start the virtual machine. Module DevicePowerOn power on failed.

• In the vmkernel.log, the following entry is visible:

VSCSI: 3611: Shared vmdk uuid not matching with sidecar uuid

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1
• VMware vSphere 8.x
• Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC)
• Shared VMDKs on Clustered VMDK enabled datastores
• Virtual Hardware Version 21

Cause

Cross-vCenter vMotion across distinct physical storage arrays triggers a Storage vMotion operation. vSphere provisions a new .vmdk descriptor file on the destination and generates a new, universally unique ddb.uuid to prevent storage identity collisions. WSFC and the ESXi virtual SCSI controller (configured for physical bus sharing) rely on the exact ddb.uuid to enforce SCSI-3 Persistent Reservations (SCSI-3 PR). The altered UUID invalidates the sidecar metadata, causing the virtual SCSI controller to fault during hardware initialization.

Resolution

To maintain cluster locking integrity during migration:

1. Power off all node VMs in the WSFC.
2. Abandon the XVM storage migration workflow for clustered nodes.
3. Utilize Array-Based Replication (volume-level replication) to replicate the underlying LUN/Datastore to the VCF 9.x storage array.
4. Present the replicated LUN to the destination ESXi hosts in the VCF 9.x environment.
5. Register the .vmx files manually within the target VCF 9.x vCenter inventory.

Note: Manual modification of the ddb.uuid in the .vmdk descriptor file is an unsupported action. For defects and enhancements, subscribe to this article (Reference: 275360) to be updated on fix status.

Additional Information

Manual modification of the ddb.uuid in the .vmdk descriptor file is an unsupported action and may lead to data corruption. For supported configurations regarding clustered VMDKs, refer to Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering on VMware vSphere 8.x: Guidelines and Workarounds.