Datastore Cannot Enter Maintenance Mode

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.

a	In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the datastore cluster and select Edit Settings.
b	Select Rules and click the rule.
c	Click Remove.
d	Click OK.

■

Alternatively, if Storage DRS rules are preventing Storage DRS from making migration recommendations, you can set the Storage DRS advanced option IgnoreAffinityRulesForMaintenance to 1.

a	In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the datastore cluster and select Edit Settings.
b	Select SDRS Automation and click Advanced Options.
c	Enter `1` in the Value column for IgnoreAffinityRulesForMaintenance.
d	Click OK.