"Invalid or inaccessible datastore." error after migrating VM replica files for active replications in Cloud Director Availability

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The overall health of affected replications are red in the Cloud Director Availability Portal and you see the error:

Invalid or inaccessible datastore.

• In /opt/vmware/h4/replicator/log/replicator.log on the Cloud Replicator Appliance, you see a similar message:

2019-10-24 11:46:25.545 DEBUG - [36a598bf-d582-####-####-########5f8] [hbr-poller1] c.v.h.r.m.hbr.HbrGroupCollector          : Received an hbr error during the monitoring

com.vmware.vim.binding.hbr.replica.fault.StorageNotFound: Error for (datastoreUUID: "5ae9d891-dfd5####-####-########939"), (diskId: "H4D-4e83cad3-6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104"), (hostId: "99391072-8e6f-####-####-########c26:host-31"), (pathname: "C4-3d60b4d4-4e24-####-####-########e6f/6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104_multi-disk.vmdk"), (flags: on-disk-open, nfc-error, unrecoverable-nfc-error): Class: NFC Code: 16; NFC error: NFC_FILE_MISSING; Code set to: Storage is not found.; Set error flag: nfc-error; Set error flag: unrecoverable-nfc-error; Can't open remote disk /vmfs/volumes/5ae9d891-dfd5####-####-########939/C4-3d60b4d4-4e24-####-####-########e6f/6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104_multi-disk.vmdk; Set error flag: on-disk-open; Failed to open replica (/vmfs/volumes/5ae9d891-dfd5####-####-########939/C4-3d60b4d4-4e24-####-####-########e6f/6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104_multi-disk.vmdk); Failed to open activeDisk (GroupID=H4-bb2686bb-2f0b-####-####-########554) (DiskID=H4D-4e83cad3-6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104); Can't create replica state (GroupID=H4-bb2686bb-2f0b-####-####-########554) (DiskID=H4D-4e83cad3-6000c29e-35dc-####-####-########104); Cannot activate group.  Loading disks from database (GroupID=H4-bb2686bb-2f0b-####-####-########554) ; Connecting to group H4-bb2686bb-2f0b-####-####-########554

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

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the VM replica files have been migrated to a different datastore outside of Cloud Director Availability.

Resolution

This is an expected behavior and it is not supported to move VM replica files between datastores outside of Cloud Director Availability.

To move VM replica files between datastores in Cloud Director Availability perform the following steps for each replication you want to move:

1. Log in to the Cloud Director Availability Provider Portal.
2. Click on the replication you want to migrate.
3. Click the Storage button.
4. In the Edit storage policy pop-up window select a new storage policy backed by a different datastore.
5. Click the Select button.

To evacuate an entire datastore at once, see the Evacuate the Replication Data from a Datastore section of the Cloud Director Availability documentation.