HCX Interoperability with Backup Solutions
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HCX Interoperability with Backup Solutions

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Article ID: 328980

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Updated On:

Products

VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
  • Attempting to run a vMotion of any type results in an error stating a disk could not be accessed
  • A backup job is running from a third party appliance


Cause

Running backup services that use VM snapshots or taking snapshots of VMs while being migrated can disrupt the migration process. This is due to the VMDK locking process and is by design in order to avoid data corruption. In order to prevent any impact in HCX services, it may be required to stop those services prior to initiating the DR protection or initiating a migration.

Resolution

HCX DR provides the ability to protect VMs via ongoing replication. Taking snapshots can cause issues with the replication process. 

In order to prevent any impact in HCX services, it may be required to stop backup services prior to initiating a migration, using RAV, or bulk migrations.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
Creating or removing snapshots during an HCX migration can cause the migration and the snapshot processes to fail.

If backup software takes a snapshot before migration or vmotion starts this is ok.  No further changes would be allowed until the vmotion or migration is completed.  This means the snapshot needs to stay put and no new snapshots during the migration period.  The snapshot can be committed or deleted after migration is complete.

Migration of powered-on virtual machines with snapshots is supported in ESXi 5.0 and later.