RAV migration fails with error "Creating placeholder VM for switchover failed"

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• HCX RAV migrations fails during switchover stage with error "Creating placeholder VM for switchover failed".
  
  
  
  
  
• The following errors are observed in the Target HCX Manager /common/logs/admin/app.log :
  
  2025-02-26 04:38:48.672 UTC [RAVService_SvcThread-10, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] INFO  c.v.v.h.a.v.HostFileOperationsFacet-  The download URL for the file is https://<Target-ESXi-IP>/folder/test+vm_1740544390473/test+vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
2025-02-26 04:38:48.714 UTC [RAVService_SvcThread-10, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] WARN  c.v.h.s.rav.jobs.CreateImageWorkflow- [migId=####-####-####-######] Unable to download vmx.
java.io.FileNotFoundException: https://<Target-ESXi-IP>/folder/test+vm_1740544390473/test+vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
  
  
• The following errors are observed in the Target ESXi /var/run/log/hostd.log :
  
  2025-02-26T04:38:48.730Z In(166) Hostd[1050587]: [Originator@6876 sub=HTTP server /folder req=######## user=vpxuser:VSPHERE.LOCAL\Administrator] Got HTTP GET request for /folder/test vm_1740544390473/test vm.vmx?dsName=<Datastore-Name>
2025-02-26T04:38:48.734Z In(166) Hostd[1051047]: [Originator@6876 sub=DatastoreBrowser opID=req=########-#### sid=##### user=vpxuser] DatastoreBrowserImpl::SearchInt MoId:####-####-####-######-datastorebrowser dsPath:[<Datastore-Name>]test vm_1740544390473 recursive:false
2025-02-26T04:38:48.736Z In(166) Hostd[1051047]: [Originator@6876 sub=AdapterServer opID=req=########-#### sid=##### user=vpxuser] AdapterServer caught exception; <<####-####-####-######, >, ####-####-####-######-datastorebrowser, vim.host.DatastoreBrowser.search>, N3Vim5Fault12FileNotFound9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.FileNotFound
   
• The following are observed in the HCX manager log /common/logs/admin/app.log
  
  2025-04-22 13:41:06.983 UTC [ReplicationTransferService_SvcThread-441, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: TxId: ####-####-####-######] WARN  c.v.v.h.adapters.vcenter.VmxUtils- Unable to download vmx.
com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument: A specified parameter was not correct: url

 

Environment

VMware HCX

Cause

HCX Replication Assisted vMotion (RAV) does not support the migration of VMs that have special characters, such as "+" in their names or associated folder paths.

Example:
Source VM name : test+vm
In the above hostd.log, it is evident that the path has been changed to 'test vm' from 'test+vm' which is the reason the "FileNotFound" exception was triggered.

Resolution

To migrate VMs containing special characters in the name for example, "+" symbol, the suggestion is to rename VM and its files.
Refer : Renaming a virtual machine and its files in vSphere

Alternatively, you can use other migration profiles such as Bulk or vMotion to manage the migration requirements for all such VMs which contains special characters.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:

• This will ONLY impact RAV migration workflow.
• There will be NO impact with vSR Bulk & vMotion/Cold Migration.
• Network Extension services will remain unaffected.

Note, from HCX 4.10 onwards, HAV migration works along with Bulk and vMotion.