VMotion compatibility message: No guest OS heartbeats are being received. This normal?

[macgreen]

We have a cluster with 2 ESX hosts, and it gives the following dialog (attached png file) when we try to migrate a VM back to the source host it just came from - in a test of VMotion - doing a manual Migrate to Another Host.

To summarize migrate VM1 from ESX1 to ESX2

Select Migrate to Another Host.

Select Destination. This validates successfully. And so does the Resource. It migrates at High Priority and completes successfully in the Task pane. VM1 is up and running fine on ESX2

Within at least 1 minute of completion I decide to Migrate back to ESX1.

Thats when I get the dialog with the compatibility message:

Migration from <ESX2>. No guest OS hearbeats are being received. Either the guest OS is not responding or VMware Tools is not configured properly.

If I cancel and wait a period of time after the first migrate and attempt the migrate back the message does not appear.

The dialog happens on both clusters we have. And also with Windows and Linux VM Guest OS's. All running the latest VMware Tools. My environment info in my sig.

Is this message expected/normal?

I have not attempted yet to carry on and migrate it under this message.

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• ESX Server 3.5 U3 • VirtualCenter 2.5 U3 (VM) • SAN Infrastructure (FC)

[weinstein5]

This message can happen - virtual cenetr uses the heartbeat feature installed with vmware tools to determine the VMs health - this is a warning and you should stuill be able to vmotion with out a problem - I usually see this is I try to vmotion just after starting up the vm or the esx host is under a heavy load -

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[kjb007]

This is common. The tools have to re-establish their status to ESX, and then to vc, which will then no longer give you warnings. As stated, that warning shouldn't prevent you from migrating again, but it's usually safer to wait until the heartbeat's available before moving again.

-KjB