Migrate option in VM is grayed out

[vmk2014]

Hi All,

I'm trying to migrate one of the VM's to the different data store but migrate option is showing grayed out. All other VM's are fine.

Thanks

vmk

[StephenMoll]

Is it possible the VM is using something not available on another host, like the port group it is using? Or it is tied to a host by having PCI or USB device passthrough set, or even connected to a disk in the hosts optical drive?

[vmk2014]

Actually there are 2 VM's and both have the same VLAN and no PCI, no RDM.

thanks

vmk

[StephenMoll]

The "VLAN" selected exists on the destination host?

The hard disk is not a RDM?

Does the VM have snapshots?

[diegodco31]

hi, please check this KB VMware Knowledge Base

[StephenMoll]

Diego my assumption at the moment is that since vmk2014 is trying to avoid "downtime" the VM is running and therefore the KB article linked is not relevant since it is for powered-off VMs.

In fact he states that the VM is powered on in his 07:20 post further down the topic.

[GayathriS]

Is the VM powered on OR powered off ?

Could you try to unregister  and register VM from inventory and then check if that works ?

regards

Gayathri

[vmk2014]

VM is powered on. We need to take downtime. Trying to avoid downtime.

[a_p_]

I think diegodco31​ is spot on.

The mentioned VPX_DISABLED_METHODS are be used by e.g. some VM based backup applications, to avoid VM migrations during the backup. In case the backup doesn't complete successfully (i.e.crashes), the flag may not be removed. I ran into this issue myself some time ago, and the easy fix was to run the backup for the VM again. Once it completed, the grayed out items were available again.

André

[diegodco31]

Hi, sorry for the delay.

I suggest trying Andre solution, run the backup for the VM again.

If, does not work, try the kb.

[vmk2014]

Full backup or incremental backup? We are using TSM backup tool. However, today's incremental backup was successful.

[vmk2014]

Ok took the full backup of the VM through TSM but no luck.

[GayathriS]

As I told earlier , s final option you have to unregister and re-register VM back .

I know you have to schedule this but this would be final option as per me.

regards

Gayathri

[vmk2014]

It's weird that if we press a ctrl key it will show migrate option which is scheduled migrate option.

thanks

vmk

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

Couple of things to try:

1. Try with the HTML5 client (https://<vCenter>/ui)
2. Check If the VM needs consolidating (e.g. does it have outstanding snapshots that don’t appear in the snapshot Manager)
3. If using backup software that uses snapshots, try creating and removing a snapshot.

Kind regards.

[Bruticusmaximus]

Does the VM have a snapshot?

[vmk2014]

No snapshot and i did try to take a snapshot and deleted the snapshot but no luck.

[JJWare]

1º Shutdown the vm.

2º Remove the vm from the inventory

3º Add the vm to the inventory again.

The option to migrate should be available again.

[Phil52]

Thank you this helped us out

[malickware]

If you are seeing the Migrate option for any other VM from the same host running inside the same datastore then it's a VM level issue.

If you can not see migrate option for any of the VM from this host to the destination host then we can check the host.

Was there any recent backup completed because we would add an entry in the DB to not to migrate the VM when the backup snapshot is in progress.

[vmk2014]

Only 2 VM's having an issue. Did check with the backup team and the backup was successful without any error. Only option to take downtime since we need to evacuate all the VM's from VMFS 5.0

[Buddhika01]

Try to update the client integration plugin and also check whether you have enough free space on the target datastore.

[pragg12]

Hi,

Try migrating the VM through PowerCLI in off business hours.

If it migrates, well, something's not right with GUI.

If it doesn't, you should see some error on PowerCLI, or related logs in vm's log file, or in host logs which could help us further assist you.

[StephenMoll]

Does "MBR storage device partitioning" have a bearing on this problem?

[ThompsG]

No it doesn’t. VMFS versions before this used MBR and hence the restrictions to 2TB. VMFS5 volumes that are MBR will change to GPT once extended beyond 2TB but would not impact Storage vMotion in this way.

Kind regards.

[pragg12]

vmk2014 Is the issue solved ? Let us know what's the status on this.

[darkhalo]

Hi vmk2014,

Have you tried to update the VMTools of the VM ?

It has fixed my issue this morning.

Good luck

[cheeweng]

I have this issue too. Verify the permission of Veeam account if your environment using Veeam.

[NathanosBlightc]

Did you check vMotion option of VMKernel in your hosts is enabled? (even source)

Physical device Path-through can be cause of the issue you have encountered?

[FlavioAraujo]

Unregister the host, Register the host and Migrate will be enabled again.

Works with me

[Rick Davis]

Generally there are 3 criteria that might cause the migrate option to be grayed out.

1. There is an old snapshot or a 3rd party backup is running that has created a snapshot of the VM.  You will need to delete the snapshot to be able to migrate.

2. There is an attached device such as a CD Rom/ISO file or special port that needs to be removed in the settings of the VM.

3. There is a DRS rule that requires the VM to be on that host.  Check DRS rules on the Configuration tab and if necessary, remove the VM from the DRS rule or group.

I had a scenario where none of these applied.  I had to power the VM off, remove from inventory, then add to inventory on the host where I wanted it to reside.

Hope this helps someone.

[c0sm042]

Try this, worked for me and requires no downtime...

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1029926