Error "Operation aborted due to an unexpected error" when configuring replications in Cloud Director Availability environment that uses vSphere Essentials license

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• Configuring new replications in Cloud Director Availability fail, and you see an error similar to:

Operation aborted due to an unexpected error.

or

Operation canceled due to an unexpected error.

• vSphere environment in one or more of the sites uses a vSphere Essentials license.
• In /opt/vmware/h4/replicator/log/replicator.log on the Cloud Director Availability On-Premises or Cloud Replicator Appliance, you see entries similar to:

2020-09-23 19:01:04.560 ERROR - [UI-<id>] [pc-task-monitor-5] c.v.h.r.monitoring.JobTaskUpdateHandler  : Task <task-id> has failed.

com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.fault.NotEnoughLicenses: License not available to perform the operation.
...
2020-09-23 19:01:04.561  WARN - [UI-<id>] [pc-task-monitor-5] c.v.h.c.e.ExceptionConversionService     : Unable to convert exception. Using fallback exception instead.

com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.fault.NotEnoughLicenses: License not available to perform the operation.
...
2020-09-23 19:01:04.564 ERROR - [UI-<id>] [pc-task-monitor-5] com.vmware.h4.jobengine.JobExecution     : Task <task-id> (WorkflowInfo{type='setupSource', resourceType='replication', resourceId='H4-<h4-id>', isPrivate=false, resourceName='null'}) has failed

com.vmware.vdr.error.exceptions.GenericServerException: Operation aborted due to an unexpected error.

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 because VMware Cloud Director Availability relies on vSphere Replication technology to synchronize the source and destination virtual machines, which is not available for vSphere Essentials licenses.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, configure the underlying vSphere environments with a license that supports vSphere Replication features in all participating sites.
For more information on the VMware Cloud Director Availability licensing requirements, see Interoperability and vSphere product edition section of the VMware Cloud Director Availability documentation.