Configuring a replication for a VM fails stating an active replication is already enabled in Cloud Director Availability

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When you configure a replication for a VM that was previously replicated with Cloud Director Availability, the action fails with the error:

The operation could not be completed, because the virtual machine has an active replication enabled.

• In /opt/vmware/h4/cloud/log/cloud.log on the target Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, you see a similar message:

2019-02-22 10:41:23.219 ERROR - [UI_/portal/outgoing-replications/SPB_RepMgr/vm_20076990-0142-44b1-b1f6-5e4f72c6b263_q6_bi] [c4-scheduler-2] com.vmware.h4.jobengine.JobExecution : Task 8de22f51-b550-46e3-bf7a-64bb25004566 (WorkflowInfo{type='start', resourceType='vmReplication', resourceId='C4-c80537bd-da3d-4192-9e41-f9a2d19227c9', isPrivate=false, resourceName='null'}) has failed

com.vmware.h4.replicator.api.exceptions.ReplicationAlreadyEnabledException: The operation could not be completed, because the virtual machine has an active replication enabled.

• In /opt/vmware/h4/manager/log/manager.log on the target Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, you see a similar message:

2019-02-22 10:41:23.200 ERROR - [UI_/portal/outgoing-replications/SPB_RepMgr/vm_20076990-0142-44b1-b1f6-5e4f72c6b263_q6_bi_al] [health-check-5] com.vmware.h4.jobengine.JobExecution : Task 92dff365-de26-40bd-9f2a-08fa67eddb17 (WorkflowInfo{type='start', resourceType='replication', resourceId='H4-829379bc-6db9-44ee-85d8-310fc1353103', isPrivate=false, resourceName='null'}) has failed

com.vmware.h4.replicator.api.exceptions.ReplicationAlreadyEnabledException: The operation could not be completed, because the virtual machine has an active replication enabled.

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

2019-02-22 10:41:23.132 ERROR - [UI_/portal/outgoing-replications/SPB_RepMgr/vm_20076990-0142-44b1-b1f6-5e4f72c6b263_q6_bi_al_Zf] [pc-task-monitor-4] c.v.h.r.monitoring.JobTaskUpdateHandler : Task 918a8f3f-3624-45a7-bbde-e4e6347f3be7 has failed.

com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.ReplicationVmConfigFault: The vSphere Replication configuration of the virtual machine has an issue: Replication is already enabled.

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
VMware vCloud Availability 3.0.x
VMware vCloud Availability for Cloud-to-Cloud DR 1.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the replication filter was not disabled on the ESXi host the source VM resides on when the replication was deleted in Cloud Director Availability.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you need to disable the replication filter on the source ESXi host before you can configure the replication again in Cloud Director Availability.

To disable the replication on an ESXi host, perform the following steps:

1. SSH to the ESXi host the source VM resides on.
2. Determine the VM ID of the source VM by running the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep vm_name

3. Validate that a replication is still enabled for the VM with the command:

vim-cmd hbrsvc/vmreplica.getConfig vm_id

4. Confirming that the replication is still active, you can disable with:

vim-cmd hbrsvc/vmreplica.disable vm_id

5. Run the getConfig command again to confirm the replication is now disabled.
6. Navigate back to the Cloud Director Availability Portal and configure the replication anew.