Disabling VMware vSphere Replication on a virtual machine

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to disable vSphere Replication on a virtual machine running on an ESXi host using the command line or the vCenter Managed Object Browser (MOB).

Resolution

Note: When using VMC on AWS, you will not have access to the ESXi command line, so please see below for the MOB steps.

To disable the vSphere Replication feature on a specific virtual machine on the command line.

 

1. Connect to the console of the production site ESXi host which is hosting the virtual machine you want to modify is running. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi
2. Run this command to get the virtual machine (VM) ID:
   
   # vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
    
   For more information about the vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms command, see Powering on a virtual machine from the command line when the host cannot be managed using vSphere Client
3. Run this command to check the replication configuration:
   
   # vim-cmd hbrsvc/vmreplica.getConfig <VM_ID>
   
   
4. Run this command to disable replication services for that virtual machine:
   
   # vim-cmd hbrsvc/vmreplica.disable <VM_ID>
   
   Where <VM_ID> is the virtual machine ID noted in Step 2.

OR

To disable the vSphere Replication feature on a specific virtual machine using the MOB.

1. Get the Managed Object ID of the VM:
   https://vcenter.sddc-##-##-##-##.vmwarevmc.com/mob -> content -> group-d1 (Datacenters) -> (SDDC-Datacenter) -> choose the link for the corresponding WorkloadDatastore based on the cluster location of the VM -> if the VM is not listed with ManagedObjectReference:VirtualMachine, then click on (more...) -> note the VM managed object ID to the left of the VM name.
    
2. Check the replication state of the VM:
   https://vcenter.sddc-##-##-##-##.vmwarevmc.com/mob/?moid=hbrManager&method=retrieveReplicationConfig&vmodl=1  
   
   Invoke method with VM_ID:
   In the Parameters text box, change the VM_ID to the value noted in the previous step, then click on the "Invoke Method" link, to see the VM replication status.
   
   A VM that is not configured for replication looks like the screenshot below:
   
3. If the status is other than that showing above, then you can clear the replication state with the following:
   https://vcenter.sddc-##-##-##-##.vmwarevmc.com/mob/?moid=hbrManager&method=disableReplication&vmodl=1 

 

Additional Information

For more information about vSphere Replication, see the following documentations.

• VMware vSphere Replication documentation.
• Powering on a virtual machine from the command line when the host cannot be managed using vSphere Client
• Using ESXi Shell in ESXi

Impact/Risks: If the VM is showing in the vSphere Replication GUI, or the HCX GUI, please first try to use the GUI to manage the replication status. This KB will help when the GUI tools cannot be used for the operation.