Unable to perform Replication-assisted vMotion (RAV) or Bulk Migration of a VM due to lwd I/O filter enabled on its virtual disks.

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to perform bulk migration in VMC on some machines because of an LWD I/O error.
• Unable to perform Replication-assisted vMotions due to LWD I/O filter attached to VM.
• When trying to use RAV or Bulk Migrate a VM protected by VCDR or other backup solution that leverages LWD snapshots the migration will fail its validation.
  HCX UI shows the error: Cannot migrate VM as it has LWD I/O filter enabled on its virtual disks



 

Environment

VMware HCX

Cause

HCX Bulk Migration and Replication-assisted vMotion are not compatible with LWD I/O filters.

Resolution

• To perform Replication-assisted vMotions or Bulk migrations, ensure that the lwd I/O filter has been removed from each VM being migrated.
  Protection can be re-enabled on the VM at a later point.
  
  
• For VMC on AWS environments:
  • Broadcom VMC on AWS Support can assist in removing the LWD I/O filter from the affected VM within a VMC SDDC.
  • Create a support ticket with Broadcom VMC on AWS Support to request assistance in having this resolved.
    
    
• For On-premise (or self-managed) environments:
  
  • The attached script (lwd-cleanup-util.py) is a pyVmomi-based utility that allows users to first list LWD-protected virtual machines in the vCenter inventory, before then disabling LWD protection for selected virtual machines on a vSphere vCenter server where needed.
  • The script requires the VMware vSphere API Python bindings. In particular, it requires the below dependencies,  all of which are satisfied by the VMware vCenter Appliance:
    
    • pyVim (vm, folder, connect)
    • pyVmomi (with vim version of at least vim.version.v7_0_2_1)
    • six (a single-file opensource dependency used by pyVim and pyVmomi)
      
      
• Move the script into the vCenter Appliance and SSH to it. 
  
  
• For command line help:
  #python lwd-cleanup-util.py --help
  
  
• Execution Steps

1. 1. Use one or more of the below list commands to confirm which VM's are LWD-protected:

• 1. • List all LWD-protected VM(s) which are protected by any vendors (including VMs protected by a vendor without a vendor ID).
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' --list
#python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' --list --all-vendors
       
       
     • List all LWD-protected VM(s) which are protected by 'myVendor'.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' --list -i myVendor
       
       
     • List all LWD-protected VM(s) which are protected but do not have an associated vendor ID.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' --list -i ""
       
       
  2. Use the below commands to remove the I/O filter from the needed VM's:
     
     
     • Disable LWD protection provided by 'myVendor' if present on the specified VM.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' -d -i myVendor -m <VM_ID>
       
       
     • Disable LWD protection provided by a vendor which didn't specify a vendor ID, if present on the specified VM.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' -d -i "" -m <VM_ID>
       
       
     • Disable LWD protection provided by any vendor, if present on the specified VM.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' -d --all-vendors -m <VM_ID>
       
       
     • Disable LWD protection provided by 'myVendor' if present on the specified VMs.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' -d -i myVendor -m <VM_ID_1> -m <VM_ID_2> -m <VM_ID_3>
       
       
     • Disable LWD protection provided by 'myVendor' for all VMs.
       #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -u '[e-mail]' -d -i 'myVendor' --all
       
       
• To list LWD protected VM's under a remote vCenter and to remove the I/O filter from them, use the below commands:
  • Connect to a remote vCenter Server to list LWD protected VMs.
    #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -r <vCenter_IP_ADDRESS> -u '[e-mail]' --skipCertCheck -l
    
    
  • Connect to a remote vCenter Server to disable LWD protection provided by 'myVendor' for all LWD-protected VMs.
    #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -r <vCenter_IP_ADDRESS> -u '[e-mail]' -d -i myVendor -all
    
    
  • Use custom pyVpx library from 'pyVpx' subfolder to connect to a remote vCenter Server and disable LWD protection provided by 'myVendor' for all LWD-protected VMs.
    #python ./lwd-cleanup-util.py -r <vCenter_IP_ADDRESS> -u '[e-mail]' -d -i myVendor --all --pyVpx pyVpx

Additional Information

Putting ESXi into Maintenance mode, vMotioning or reconfiguring a VM fails due to the vmwarelwd ioFilter being attached