VMotion fails on a NFS datastore

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• VMotion fails at 78% with the error:
  
  A general system error occurred: Source detected that destination failed to resume
  
  
• You see these entries in the /var/log/vmkernel.log file on the ESX/ESXi 5.x host. On ESXi 4.x, the entries are in the log file /var/log/messages file.
  
  Migration considered a failure by the VMX. It is most likely a timeout, but check the VMX log for the true error
  WARNING: VMotion: 3414: 1266620800706875 D: Failed to reopen swap on destination: Not found
  WARNING: Migrate: 295: 1266620800706875 D: Failed: Not found (0xbad0003) @0x418002b0e0d5
  
  
• You see these entries in the /var/log/vmware/hostd.log file on the ESX host:
  
  [2010-06-22 20:26:23.037 F634EB90 info 'VMotionDst (1277252766031063)'] ResolveC
  b: Failed with fault: (vmodl.fault.SystemError) {
  dynamicType = <unset>,
  faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  reason = "Failed to resume destination VM: Not found.
  ",
  msg = "",
  }

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded

Resolution

This issue can occur if the vmfs volume containing the vmdk file of a virtual machine is on an NFS datastore and the datastore is mounted differently on both the source and destination machines. For example, if the NFS datastore on the source machine is mounted using IP and the destination machine has the datastore mounted using FQDN.

To check if the NFS datastores are mounted differently:

1. Connect to the ESXi/ESX host using a remote KVM, direct console access, or using SSH. For more information, see Connecting to an ESX host using a SSH client (1019852).
2. Run this command on both machines to check the NFS mount values:
   
   esxcfg-nas -l
   
   On ESXi 5.x, run, esxcli storage nfs list
   
   
3. Compare the output from both machines and check for differences. For example:
   
   Output of command on ESXi/ESX host 1:
   
   exit15_ISOs is /vol/vol0/home/ISO-Images/vol1 from fxit15.eng.vmware.com mounted
   
   Output of command on ESXi/ESX host 2:
   
   exit15_ISOs is /vol/vol0/home/ISO-Images/vol1 from 10.17.4.21 mounted
   
   In these outputs host1 has the NFS datastore mounted using the IP address at 10.17.4.21 and the host2 has the datastore mounted using DNS name at fxit15.eng.vmware.com.
   
   
4. Use the same mounting method on both machines. Either use the same IP address or use the same DNS name on both machines.