failed to initiate VMotion dest (vim.fault.InvalidState)

[mphodge]

I have a DRS cluster of ESX hosts (3.5.0 build 82663) all built identically from kickstart.

I have a DRS rule configured to separate 2 VMs. When DRS tries to migrate one VM to another host, I get the following error in VC:

A general system error occurred: Invalid fault

A general system error occurred: failed to initiate VMotion dest (vim.fault.InvalidState)

Anyone else had this problem?

[dmaster]

Hello mphodge,

Are you sure VMotion enabled and is working between all the hosts in your VMware DRS cluster ?

You should also check if DNS is properly configured for your ESX hosts. (forward and reverse lookup zones).

[mphodge]

Yes VMotion works just fine as I have migrated VMs manually.

The cluster is also HA and yes DNS is correctly configured with forward and reverse zones.

[mphodge]

hmm... it seems to be to a certain ESX host as I've just tried a VMotion to another host and the same VM worked ok.

It's confusing as every host is identical hardware (blades) and built identically using the same scripts.

[kjb007]

You may have a stuck process on that host. On the problem host, I would restart hostd, service mgmt-vmware restart.

Worst case, you may need to reboot that particular host.

-KjB

[mphodge]

Yep, already tried rebooting the host... same error

[kjb007]

Are other vm's having issues on that same host, or is this one vm the only problem child? If the vm, then I'd create a new vm, and use this vm's disks, and try the vmotion again. There may be an issue with the vc db then.

-KjB

[mphodge]

It's nothing to do with the VMs as I can successfully migrate any particular VM onto another host, just not this one.

In fact I took one VM, and migrated it to each host in turn, no problems. Then when I get to this one host, I get the error in the subject.

I have even tried rebuilding this one host. It's very strange as they are all exactly identical in hardware and configuration.

The only difference is the number - this is host 13. I can migrate a VM onto hosts 1 to 12!!

[mphodge]

hmm.. fixed my own problem

host restrictions on the filer for writing to NFS mounts!

[drowland]

We had this exact same issue on one server. When looking at the NFS share, I noticed that the server in question had only RW to the NFS share. All other servers had root also. I had our storage team fix and reexport this share. Now all is fine.

This issue came up after rebooting after installing the latest ESX patches. Not sure if there is something in the patches that now required root or if this was always the case.

Thanks,

Doug

[manikandankv]

The issue related to ESX host .I executed the following commands and works fine for me .

service mgmt-vmware restart

service network restart

I hope this will useful, whoever looking for the same issue .

[jjgunn]

"service mgmt-vmware restart

service network restart"

I also restarted

"service vmware-vpxa restart"

That helped me. I was able to shutdown the VM then move it off the ESX server

Thanks everyone!