You place a datastore in maintenance mode when you must take it out of usage to service it. A datastore enters or leaves maintenance mode only as a result of a user request.

Problem

A datastore in a datastore cluster cannot enter maintenance mode. The Entering Maintenance Mode status remains at 1%.

Cause

One or more disks on the datastore cannot be migrated with Storage vMotion. This condition can occur in the following instances.
  • Storage DRS is disabled on the disk.
  • Storage DRS rules prevent Storage DRS from making migration recommendations for the disk.

Solution

  • If Storage DRS is disabled, enable it or determine why it is disabled. See Storage DRS is Disabled on a Virtual Disk for reasons why Storage DRS might be disabled.
  • If Storage DRS rules are preventing Storage DRS from making migration recommendations, you can remove or disable particular rules.
    1. Browse to the datastore cluster in the vSphere Web Client object navigator.
    2. Click the Manage tab and click Settings.
    3. Under Configuration, select Rules and click the rule.
    4. Click Remove.
  • Alternatively, if Storage DRS rules are preventing Storage DRS from making migration recommendations, you can set the Storage DRS advanced option IgnoreAffinityRulesForMaintenance to 1.
    1. Browse to the datastore cluster in the vSphere Web Client object navigator.
    2. Click the Manage tab and click Settings.
    3. Select SDRS and click Edit.
    4. In Advanced Options > Configuration Parameters, click Add.
    5. In the Option column, enter IgnoreAffinityRulesForMaintenance.
    6. In the Value column, enter 1 to enable the option.
    7. Click OK.