VMware Live Recovery fails with error "No host is compatible with the virtual machine" due to EVC mismatch

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

This article addresses a failure within VMware Live Recovery during Disaster Recovery (DR) testing or failover operations.

• During a Recovery Plan execution (e.g., Test or Cleanup), the task fails at the "Priority Group" power-on or host compatibility check phase.
• Error Message: No host is compatible with the virtual machine.
• Log Evidence: Examination of vCenter Server or recovery logs reveals vim.fault.FeatureRequirementsNotMet and specific CPU feature mismatches such as Shadow Stacks (cpuid.cet_ss), Vector Neural Network Instructions (cpuid.avx_vnni), or Advanced Matrix Extensions (amx_bf16).

 

Environment

VMware Live Recovery 9.x

Cause

• The failure occurs because the virtual machine hardware requirements, dictated by the CPU feature set presented at the source site, are not met by the target hosts at the recovery site.
• When EVC is enabled at the source but disabled at the target, the target hosts may fail to mask hardware differences or provide the specific instruction sets (CPUID) the VM expects, leading to a compatibility fault during the pre-power-on validation.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the EVC baselines must be synchronized between the protected (source) and recovery (target) sites.

1. Identify Source EVC Baseline:

   • Log in to the source vCenter Server.
   • Navigate to Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.
   • Select the source Cluster, click Configure > Configuration > VMware EVC.
   • Note the specific CPU Vendor and Mode (e.g., Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Generation).

2. Configure Recovery EVC Baseline:

   • Log in to the recovery site vCenter Server.
   • Navigate to the target Cluster intended for failover.
   • Ensure all hosts in the recovery cluster support the baseline identified in Step 1.
   • Click Configure > Configuration > VMware EVC > Edit.
   • Enable EVC and select the CPU Mode that matches the source cluster exactly.

3. Verify Compatibility:

   • In the VMware Live Recovery interface, select the affected Recovery Plan.
   • Run a Test (Dry Run) to confirm the "No host is compatible" error is resolved.

Additional Information

• For detailed instructions on EVC requirements and compatibility modes, see Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support (1003212).