SRM actual failover fails with the error: "Unable to access file ds:///vmfs/volumes/xxxx-xxxx-xxxxx/"

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• SRM planned migration might fail with few virtual machines reporting the error:

Unable to access file ds:///vmfs/volumes/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx/

• The migration has shut down the VM on the production site and currently is in process of creating a placeholder VM under the same production site.
• In the VMware-DR.log file, you see entries similar to:

03:00 [92668 verbose 'LocalVcServer-PCM' opID=279bbc83 remoteTask=task-488793] [PCM] Recording new filter 'sessionId[522b6]52cd053a-2d2e-ed16-580c-b972dda651df' for token '509' and connection version '1'
2017-10-26T20:23:38.343+03:00 [92668 error 'RemoteTaskMonitor' remoteTask=task-488793] Dr::Internal::RemoteTaskBase::HandleTaskError: The remote task failed, error=
--> (vim.fault.CannotAccessFile) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null, 
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "com.vmware.vim.vpx.file.creation.Error", 
-->          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->             (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                key = "filename", 
-->                value = "/vmfs/volumes/54465721-86f264ec-c4d9-f8db889e2639"
-->             }
-->          ], 
-->          message = "/vmfs/volumes/54465721-86f264ec-c4d9-f8db889e2639 could not be created"
-->       }
-->    ], 
-->    file = "ds:///vmfs/volumes/54465721-86f264ec-c4d9-f8db889e2639/"
-->    msg = "Unable to access file ds:///vmfs/volumes/54465721-86f264ec-c4d9-f8db889e2639/"
--> }
03:00 [92668 error 'RemoteTaskMonitor' remoteTask=task-488793] Dr::Internal::RemoteTask<class Dr::TypedMoRef<class Vim::VirtualMachine,void> const >::Fail: The remote task failed

• Recovery plan report error similar to:

Prepare VMs for migration,Unable to access file ds:///vmfs/volumes/54465721-86f264ec-c4d9-f8db889e2639/

Cause

• This issue occurs when the placeholder VM creation is in progress.
• Because placeholder datastore configured in SRM mappings is not visible to the ESXi host in production site for those impacted virtual machines, it is evident to encounter this issue.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Go to Home > Site Recovery > Sites > Production site > Advance Settings > Placeholder Datastore.
2. Make a note of the respective datastore and validate if this datastore is visible to the ESXI host where the impacted virtual machines were registered (Production Site).

Note: Ideally, it would not be visible.

3. Change datastore which is visible to all the host in the cluster or get the original datastores mapped properly.