Which happens if the swap file of a virtual machine is inaccessible to the destination host during a vMotion?

If ESXi cannot access the original swap file location on the destination host during vMotion, it falls back to creating a new swap file in the same directory as the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx). This behavior ensures the vMotion operation completes successfully and the VM continues running, avoiding unnecessary migration failures due to swap file path inaccessibility. The new swap file persists until the VM is powered off and the configuration is corrected to point to an accessible shared datastore.

ESXi does not copy the existing swap file to the destination host during vMotion - it instead creates a brand-new swap file at the destination alongside the VM configuration files.

vMotion does not fail when the swap file is inaccessible - ESXi handles this condition gracefully by creating a new swap file at the VM configuration file location on the destination.

ESXi does not replicate or move the swap file to a mutually accessible shared datastore during vMotion - the resolution is a local fallback to the VM configuration file directory.