Your attempts to migrate a virtual machine or to deploy a VM OVF to virtual datastores fail.

Problem

An OVF template or a VM being migrated from a nonvirtual datastore might include additional large files, such as ISO disk images, DVD images, and image files. If these additional files cause the configuration virtual volume to exceed its 4-GB limit, migration or deployment to a virtual datastore fails.

Cause

The configuration virtual volume, or config-VVol, contains various VM-related files. On traditional nonvirtual datastores, these files are stored in the VM home directory. Similar to the VM home directory, the config-VVol typically includes the VM configuration file, virtual disk and snapshot descriptor files, log files, lock files, and so on.

On virtual datastores, all other large-sized files, such as virtual disks, memory snapshots, swap, and digest, are stored as separate virtual volumes.

Config-VVols are created as 4-GB virtual volumes. Generic content of the config-VVol usually consumes only a fraction of this 4-GB allocation, so config-VVols are typically thin-provisioned to conserve backing space. Any additional large files, such as ISO disk images, DVD images, and image files, might cause the config-VVol to exceed its 4-GB limit. If such files are included in an OVF template, deployment of the VM OVF to vSphere Virtual Volumes storage fails. If these files are part of an existing VM, migration of that VM from a traditional datastore to vSphere Virtual Volumes storage also fails.

Solution

  • For VM migration. Before migrating a VM from a traditional datastore to a virtual datastore, remove excess content from the VM home directory to keep the config-VVol under the 4-GB limit.
  • For OVF deployment. Because you cannot deploy an OVF template that contains excess files directly to a virtual datastore, first deploy the VM to a nonvirtual datastore. Remove any excess content from the VM home directory, and migrate the resulting VM to vSphere Virtual Volumes storage.