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SCX
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vDP Restore Fails On Machine under vSphere Replication

We have several VMs that are configured to use vSphere Replication.

I backed up one of these, and did a trial restore, after a few seconds it fails with the error:

"Invalid or unsupported virtual machine configuration" and the error stack says:

"vSphere Replication does not support changing the length of a replicated disk"

Now at the moment, we're kind of screwed, since the DR site is not accessible, there's no way to actually remove the replication settings from the VM, since as soon as I try I get a "VR appliances should be installed and configured on both sites, paired, and connected in order to configure replication".

Great, thanks a lot, so not only is my replication down, but I can't even do backups?

So, why is the error happening when I try to do a restore? Why is vSphere replication even being mentioned? I thought vDP was entirely independent of replication, but it appears not. Any clues?

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9 Replies
snekkalapudi
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi,

Pls specify the type of restore tried from VDP(Assume it is overwite, replacing the existing VM). Pls confirm

-Suresh
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SCX
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It's a restore to a different location (same host, different datastore), so no replace. I don't have enough confidence in vDP to do a "Restore to Original Location" (and rightly so, it seems!)

I have tried shutting down the VM that I took the backup from, but get the same error.  I am going to try restarting vDP, as that tends to fix some things...

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SCX
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vDP restart didn't help.

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snekkalapudi
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Today i tried vSphere Replication (Standalone) and VDP Restore.

1. After the Initial Full Sync-up of VMs through vSphere Replication, Tried both the VDP  Restore methods(Overwrite & Create New).

2. In both the cases, replication on the VMs turned to inactive the moment VMs are shutdown for restore (Shutdown of VMs is a pre-requisite for VDP to perform a restore)

3.Restored the VMs successfully  using both the methods and once the restored VMs are powered ON the replication on the VMs turned back to Active/ON and the successive VR sync-ups (delta) went fine without any issues.

-Suresh
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SCX
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for that, but I am still having a problem. I performed the backup when the remote DR site was down, and so the VM was no longer being replicated, which differs from your scenario. Maybe the way the replication finished (not a "nice" disconnect of replication, the network just went down) caused some glitch, I don't know.

Incidentally, the original VM does not need to be shut down if you do a restore to a different location. Don't know about "restore to same location", as I mentioned, I don't want to try this and risk messing up my VM.

In any case, I have a support request open and will see what happens.

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simon79
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, did you ever get a resolution to this problem? We are experiencing the same issue

Thanks

Simon

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SCX
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Not what you want to hear, but the only resolution I got was to drop this software and use something that actually works. As it stands, vDP is completely worthless.

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wayneoakley-msi
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

i have now run into this as well

tried unregistering the replication appliance as it is not working properly but that did not help.

too bad someone from vmware who is associated with the product has not gotten involved or commented.

sure gives the product a black-eye both that it has the problem and that vmware product team is ignoring this discussion

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GoggiP365
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

This is a known issue affecting VMware vSphere Replication 5.1.

This issue is resolved on the following versions of ESXi 5.1 and 5.5 with combination of vSphere Replication version 5.1 and 5.5

ESXi 5.1

VMware ESXi 5.1 Update 2 Build 1483097

VMware vSphere Replication 5.1.2 Build 1527968

ESXi 5.5

VMware ESXi 5.5 Build 1331820

VMware vsphere Replication 5.5 Build 1309877

With Fix: VM re-configure and Replication configuration should succeed.

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