Trying to decommission a VDI host but can't move the replica. No idea how to find what VM's it's associated with.

[nary4484]

I have a VDI host that I am wanting to remove from my current View environment for another purpose.  I can migrate all the VM's off of it no problem but there is a few replica disks left on it and I can't move them.  I'm assuming migrate replicas isn't supported by vMotion.  How else am I suppose to clear it off of there?  I don't have a clue what VM's it is associated with and haven't found much for KB's describing how.  If I rebalance that is only moving stuff around between datastore, not the host.

I tried this KB on the host I want to remove but the replicas that are showing still on the host were not listed in the output.

[techguy129]

nary4484​

The replicas are protected from being vmotion. You have to unprotect the replica using sviconfig, vmotion it, then re-protect it after you're done.

Steps  to unprotect

Manually deleting replica virtual machines in VMware Horizon View (1008704) | VMware KB

Steps to protect

Re-protecting a View replica virtual machine (2015006) | VMware KB

As far as which vms are using the replica...

You have to query the database to find that information

Finding the virtual machines that are associated with a Replica in the VMware Horizon View (2088582)...

[TechMassey · Accepted solution]

Actually, Replicas are supported for vMotion under a specific condition. A host needs to be placed in maintenance mode which is a good step to take before removing a host from the cluster. Check that DRS is set to "Fully Automated" and the replicas will be migrated. I have done this on too many hosts to count.

[nary4484]

Great!  I did as you mentioned and the replica did migrate with the rest of the hosts.  Thank you for your response.