vSphere Replication 8.3 reports incremental sync size several times bigger than VM disk (but is not real)

[montybeato]

Hi,

One of my replicated VMs has a thin provisioned disk which is using 30GB out of a 1TB defined size.

It has several days replicating Ok with 15-min RPO, but suddenly VR is reporting RPO violation and is copying more than 180GB out of nowhere.

I've checked the VM again... is using the 30GB and it keeps having thin provisioning, so no change has been done.

Primary site is using vCenter 6.5, VR 8.3 with iSCSI datastores.

Destination site is using vCenter 6.7, VR 8.3 with VSAN 6.7.

Have you seen a similar issue?

Is it better to open a support request than discuss it here?

Thanks,

Monty

[TheBobkin]

Hello Monty,

Welcome to Communities,

"Is it better to open a support request than discuss it here?"

Note that while maintained/run by VMware, this is not a means of communication with VMware GSS and is predominantly a platform for VMware users/customers to share knowledge and information, e.g. no-one (VMware or otherwise) is obliged to respond or answer queries, no SLAs etc. and thus if you have a VMware support contract, do of course also open a Support Request with GSS.

While I don't have much knowledge of vSphere Replication, I work with vSAN on a daily basis and would be interested in what Objects (e.g. vmdks etc.) are stored on the vSAN side that could amount to (at least) 180GB since you said this should only be using ~30GB, If you can PM/share the contents of the following generated file (/tmp/objout2130) and the name of the VM/namespace UUID of the replicated data:

# esxcli vsan debug object list > /tmp/objout2129

(note, requires --all flag as of 6.7 U3 or will only show the output of the first 100 Objects)

Bob

[montybeato]

Thank you Bob,

Sharing some knowledge, then:

It was related to a known issue that can affect VMs running some specific operating systems:

VMware Knowledge Base

Best Regards,

Monty