vMotion fails at 14% with the error: Operation Timed out

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot vMotion a virtual machine from one host to another.
• Performing a vMotion of a virtual machine fails.
• You see the error:
  
  Operation timed out
   
• vMotion task fails at 14%
• The source host reports no issues in the /var/log/hostd.log file.
• In the /var/log/hostd.log file of the destination host, you see the error:
  
  error -1: Failed to launch virtual machine process. Unable to generate userworld swap file in directory '/vmfs/volumes/Volume ID /VM' for 'VM'.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs if there are two vmx-swap files present in the virtual machine directory. The directory should contain one standard ESXi vswp file (vmname.vswp) and one VMX-swap file (vmx-vmname.vswp) for vmx memory overhead.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, if you can storage vMotion, move the virtual machine to another datastore and retry the vMotion.
If you are unable to storage vMotion investigate the directory stated in the error. If you see two vmx-swap files, perform these steps:

1. Power down the virtual machine.
   
   Note: Swap files should not be present when the virtual machine is powered down.
    
2. On the ESXi host, navigate to the virtual machine directory listed in the error.
3. Check if there is a swap file present by running the command:
   
   ls -lah
    
4. If you see a vmx-swap file, move the file to a backup location by running the command:
   
   mv vmx-vmname.vswp /vmfs/volumes/backup_location
    
5. Power on the virtual machine and retry the vMotion task.
   
   Note: Once the vMotion task completes successfully you can remove the back vmx-swap file.

Additional Information

vMotion が 14% の時点で失敗し、次のエラーが表示される:操作がタイムアウトしました
vMotion 在进行到 14% 时失败，并出现以下错误：操作超时 (Operation Timed out)