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Troubleshooting migration compatibility warning: Device uses backing which is not accessible

Symptoms


  • When performing a VMotion migration the following compatibility warning is displayed:

    Unable to migrate from <source server> to <destination server>: Device '<device>' uses backing '<device>', which is not accessible .

Resolution

Overview

This unable to migrate warning message indicates that the virtual machine has a device that is disconnected and pointing to an image that is not accessible on the destination host. 
 
The possible devices that can show this warning are:
  • CD ROM Drive
  • Floppy Drive

This warning can be safely ignored and only appears if you are using an image file (ISO, FLP, etc.) and not a physical device. 

Workaround

To workaround the issue, perform on of the following actions:
  • Ensure that the image being used in the device is accessible from all ESX Servers by storing the files on a datastore that is shared between all ESX Servers and participate in VMotion of the virtual machine.

  • Edit the settings of the virtual machine and configure the drive to use the client device before performing a migration. 

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1003794
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware VirtualCenter
  • Product Versions:
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x