"Unable to create replica disk" error when configuring replications in vCloud Availability 3.0

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When configuring a new replication in vCloud Availability, the replication disappears from the list of configured replications and you see a red banner with the error:

Unable to create replica disk(s).

• In /var/log/vmware/hbrsrv.log on the Replicator, you see entries similar to:

2019-11-14T12:59:30.187Z error hbrsrv[00888] [Originator@6876 sub=Main opID=ui-proxy_########-####-####-####-########000_00_00_00_00] HbrError for (reason: "invalidPath"), (spec: {diskIdent = {id = "H4D-########-######00-0f74-9260-02a6-d146526b605f", location = {datastoreUUID = "########-####-########1100", pathname = "_H4-########-####-####-####-########bad6/########-####-####-####-########605f_########-####-####-####-########9249"}}, useNativeSnapshots = false, storagePolicy = <unset>}) stack: 2019-11-14T12:59:30.187Z error hbrsrv[00888] [Originator@6876 sub=Main opID=ui-proxy_########-####-####-####-########000_00_00_00_00]    [0] Disk path basename is not of the form '*.vmdk'!2019-11-14T12:59:30.187Z error hbrsrv[00888] [Originator@6876 sub=Main opID=ui-proxy_########-####-####-####-########000_00_00_00_00]    [1] Code set to: A provided replicated disk spec is invalid.

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vCloud Availability 3.0.x

Cause

This issue can occur when the VM's disk files don't have the correct file extension on the source site. vCloud Availability creates replica files on the target site based on the file format of the VM files in the source site, then when the HBR service tries to access the replica files the task will fail because the files don't have a .vmdk extension.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, correct the file extension of the source VM disk files for all affected VMs before attempting to configure new replications.