VMware vMotion fails to move a virtual machine back to an ESX host where the application was online

Last published : Oct 01, 2026
In a VCS cluster configured using VMware non-shared disk, if a virtual machine (VM1) on which the application is online is moved to another ESX host (for example, ESX 1), then the storage disk also relocates along with VM1. (2896662)
Now, if the application is failed over to a virtual machine (VM2) that resides on an alternate target ESX host (for example, ESX 2), then the storage disk relocates to VM2. The application is now online on VM2. VMware vMotion now fails to move VM2 back to ESX 1, because of the earlier data logs.
Workaround:
Perform the following steps, to resolve this issue:
  1. Fail over the application to VM1
  2. Move VM2 to ESX1
  3. Fail back the application to VM2