Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Migrating a virtual machine in vSphere 5.x fails with the error: "The operation is not allowed in the current connection state of the host (2046356) "

Symptoms
  • Cannot migrate a virtual machine in a vSphere 5.x environment.
  • Migrating a virtual machine fails with the error:

    Relocate virtual machine
    The operation is not allowed in the current connection state of the host
    Time: xx/xx/xxxx xx:xx:xx
    Target: xxxxx
    vCenter Server: xxxxx
  • The Summary tab of the powered on virtual machine reports this information:
    • CPU Usage - 0 MHz
    • Memory Usage - 0.00 MB

Resolution

To resolve this issue, perform these steps, verifying if the issue is resolved after each step:
  1. Restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server Service. (This actually solved my problem as simple as it sounds)
  2. Restart the Management agents on the ESX host running the virtual machine. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490).
  3. Disconnect and reconnect the ESX host that is running the virtual machine to force vCenter Server to retrieve an updated set of data relating to the objects registered to the host.
Note: If the problem persists even after performing the steps in this article, file a support request with VMware Support and note this KB article ID (2046356) in the problem description.