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Frederik
Asked: 2016-10-28 00:17:59 +0800 CST

vSphere 6 fails to deploy VM from template

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I am having a funny issue with my vCenter..

When I try to deploy a new Windows Server 2012R2 from my template VM it almost always fails with this error:

Cannot migrate <vm> from <host the template is on> to <a host in standby mode??> and resource pool Resources in <datacenter>: The operation is not allowed in the current state of the host.

As you can see from the error above, vCenter tries to create the new VM on a server that is in standby mode.

Is this a bug in vSphere or a configuration error on my part?

vSphere HA, DRS and Power Management is enabled on the cluster

vmware-vcenter vmware-esxi vmware-vsphere

2 Answers

  1. Does your Cluster have DRS automatic placement enabled? If so, maybe DRS is trying to put that new VM on the host in Standby mode. If you set the DRS config to not auto place new VMs and then select the specific host, that might work.

    https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-9062F225-E01B-42BA-8AFB-8EA4069068FE.html

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  2. You should be able to change DRS to manual mode without actually disabling it or undoing configs. Then, deploy your new server and switch it back when you are done.

    Manual DRS only suggests where VMs should go, but you would have to accept the recommendations.

    Also, what version of vCenter are you using? DRS should recognize when a server is in standby and remove it from recommendations unless you don't have enough slots available. But if you don't have enough slots, it should power on the standby server.

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