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GCSvm
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can't power on VM after enabling VR

this is the error i get after enabling Vsphere replication and powering on the machine. I say powering on because enabling the VR crashes the VM. If I disable the replication the machine starts properly. The ineteresting thing is that I can replicate an 80 GB drive on this machine but the minute I enable the replication of a 2 TB drive I get this issue.

Any idea?

"An error was received from the ESX host while powering on VM Novastor.
Failed to start the virtual machine.
Module DevicePowerOn power on failed.
Unable to create virtual SCSI device for scsi0:1, '/vmfs/volumes/4ffda1f1-22a39f8e-bd7d-e61f13f6d8ff/Novastor/Novastor.vmdk'
Failed to attach filter 'hbr_filter' to scsi0:1: Limit exceeded (195887110). "
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a_p_
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I would assume this is below the 2032GB limit of Vsphere replication so  why do i get that error when i enable replication for that disk?

2TB equals 2,048GB which is more than the maximum supported size of 2,032GB (= 1.984375 TB).

André

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a_p_
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You mentioned 2TB. What's the exact size? Unless I'm mistaken, the maximum supported virtual disk size for vSphere Replication is 2,032 GB.

André

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GCSvm
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in windows it is 1.99 TB and in vsphere it is 2 TB. I know about the limit but believe i am at worst 32 GB under it.

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a_p_
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One way to find out the exact size is to run ls -lisa on the command line.

André

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memaad
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Hi,

Try to restart management agent on the host and try to power On the VM.

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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memaad
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Hi,

Also then disbale vSphere replication on this affected VM , by right click----> Configure Replication----->Disable vSPhere Replication to this scsi0:1 disk.

Regards

MOhammed

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GCSvm
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Memaad you are correct- disabling the VR does permit the machine to boot.

What I am trying to resolve is why I cannot replicate the machine and its disks. Vcenter does not allow the creation of a guest OS  disk larger than 2TB- I would assume this is below the 2032GB limit of Vsphere replication so why do i get that error when i enable replication for that disk?

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a_p_
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I would assume this is below the 2032GB limit of Vsphere replication so  why do i get that error when i enable replication for that disk?

2TB equals 2,048GB which is more than the maximum supported size of 2,032GB (= 1.984375 TB).

André

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memaad
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Hi,

Maximum Size supported

Virtual disk size 2TB minus 512 bytes

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r51/vsphere-51-configuration-maximums.pdf

Regards

Mohammed

Mohammed | Mark it as helpful or correct if my suggestion is useful.
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mikez2
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The 2TB-512 is the very-most maximum disk size that's supported, but the max replicable disk is 2032GB. This is because this is the biggest disk you can also generate child disks for and VR uses child disks on the replica site.

If the original disk is 2TB - 32 GB (2048GB - 32GB = 2016GB) then that disk should power-on and replicate just fine. Since it's not, I'd suggest double checking that the disk size is really, in fact, 2032 GB or less.

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GCSvm
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thank you all for your help.

The issue is that the drives are actually 2048GB as verified with the command a.p. suggested.

I don't suppose anyone has an easy way to shrink these drives by 20 GB? I know I can create a new drive in vmware and ghost over the info but this is a substantial undertaking as this machine has 8 of these drives.

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mikez2
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Three's no really great way to do this. The safest option is to create a new smaller disk and then copy the data over in the guest to the new disk.

If the disks are thick, flat disks, there might be some games you can play by using a partition tool in the guest to shrink the partitions so they fit in the new disk size, and then you could try truncating the vmdk, but that's incredibly risky and I'm not even certain it would work.

If this is important data, I strongly suggest taking the safest route. In fact, considering that repartitioning would require you to reboot into some mode where you can't use the disk, doing the safe route of attaching a new disk and copying the data in-guest to the new disk could probably be done with far less downtime. So the safe method is probably your best bet in any case since not only is it the least risky, it's probably also the least amount of trouble.

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