"Invalid or inaccessible datastore." when creating new replications in vCloud Availability 3.x

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When creating a new replication, the task fails and you see a similar error:

Invalid or inaccessible datastore.

• In /var/log/vmkernel.log on the source ESXi host, you see entries similar to:

2020-06-08T09:19:55.789Z cpu34:2636569)Hbr: 2998: Command: INIT_SESSION: error result=Failed gen=-1: Error for (datastoreUUID: "########-####-####-####-##########"), (diskId: "H4D-########-####-####-####-##########"), (flags: on-disk-open): $

2020-06-08T09:19:55.789Z cpu34:2636569)WARNING: Hbr: 3007: Command INIT_SESSION failed (result=Failed) (isFatal=FALSE) (Id=0) (GroupID=H4-########-####-####-####-##########)

2020-06-08T09:19:55.790Z cpu34:2636569)WARNING: Hbr: 4570: Failed to establish connection to [10.20.100.11]:44046(groupID=H4-########-####-####-####-##########): Failure

• In /opt/vmware/h4/replicator/log/replicator.log on the destination Replicator, you see an entry similar to:

com.vmware.vim.binding.hbr.replica.fault.StorageNotAccessible: Error for (datastoreUUID: "########-####-####-####-##########"), (diskId: "H4D-########-####-####-####-##########"), 

(flags: on-disk-open): No accessible host for datastore '########-####-####-####-##########'; Code set to: Storage was not accessible.; Failed to find host to get disk type; While getting host capabilities for disk. (native snapshot hint =  false); 

Failed to open disk, couldn't get disk type/capabilities; Set error flag: on-disk-open; Failed to open replica

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

Environment

VMware vCloud Availability 3.5.x

Cause

This issue can occur when a dedicated VMkernel interface has been created for replication traffic on the same subnet as the management VMkernel interface on the ESXi hosts.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure that the replication VMkernel interface is on a separate subnet to the management VMkernel interface as per the vCloud Availability deployment requirements.

Additional Information

For more information, see the VMware vCloud Availability Deployment Requirements section of the vCloud Availability documentation.