What problem does vSphere Storage vMotion solve?

vSphere Storage vMotion is a feature designed to allow the live migration of virtual machine disk files from one storage location to another without any downtime for the virtual machine itself. This capability is particularly useful when you need to perform maintenance on a storage array or when you want to balance storage workloads across multiple arrays.

When a storage array requires maintenance, it is often necessary to move the virtual machine disks (VMDKs) to a different datastore to ensure that the virtual machines remain accessible while the maintenance is performed. This is precisely the problem that vSphere Storage vMotion addresses, allowing for seamless migration of VM storage without interrupting operations or user access.

In this context, other scenarios like VM consolidation, CPU resource contention on a single ESXi host, or maintenance of an ESXi host are not specific to storage management or migration. While these issues may affect VM performance and management, they do not directly involve the need to move VM storage to maintain operational continuity, which is the primary purpose of Storage vMotion.