Invalid configuration for device 4 Error When Cloning or vMotion a Virtual Machine

When performing vMotion on a Virtual Machine (VM) or a template on vDS (virtual distributed switch) configuration, you may come across this error:
Invalid configuration for Device ‘4’

I experienced this error in my lab over the weekend and removing the VM from the vDS portgroup fixed the issue. According to VMware, the cause of this issue is that during the clone procedure, a vDS port requires a reservation. This issue occurs if the reservation expires too quickly.

Here is step by step how to (applies to vSphere 4.0/4.1, may also work for 5.0):

  1. Launch the vSphere Client
  2. RIGHT click on the VM which is producing this error and click on EDIT SETTINGS.
  3. Under the Hardware tab, check the settings for all the Network Adapter devices.
  4. Click on Network Adapter 1 and then change the Network Connection-Network Label from vDS portgroup to Standard vSwitch.
  5. Perform the vMotion or clone again
  6. After the task in #5 completes, add the VM back to the vDS portgroup.

You should be all done. One thing worth mentioning here is that when you start the vmotion/clone process on a VM, vsphere client does give you an ‘warning’ under the compatibility:

Network interface ‘Network Adapter 1’ uses newtork ‘Distributed Virtual Switch (uuid), which is not accessible.

But for some reason still allows the user to click “next” only to fail later in the task.

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