DRS Does Not Move the Virtual Machine

DRS does not move the virtual machine when it is initially powered on despite insufficient resources on the host.

Problem

When you power on a virtual machine, DRS does not migrate it as expected when there are not enough resources on the host where the virtual machine is registered.

Cause

The following are possible reasons why DRS does not move the virtual machine.

• DRS is deactivated on the virtual machine.
• The virtual machine has a device mounted.
• The virtual machine is not compatible with any other hosts.
• No other hosts have a sufficient number of physical CPUs or capacity for each CPU for the virtual machine.
• No other hosts have sufficient CPU or memory resources to satisfy the reservations and required memory of this virtual machine.
• Moving the virtual machine will violate an affinity or anti-affinity rule.
• The DRS automation level of the virtual machine is manual and the user does not approve the migration recommendation.
• DRS will not move fault tolerance-activated virtual machines.
• Check if a VM Override definition exists for the VM which may impede an automatic migration.

Solution

Address the issue that prevents DRS from moving the virtual machine.