HCX - Bulk or RAV migrations fail with error "Replication has been disabled" due to HMS running at source vCenter

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Identify the condition that cause HMS to disrupt vSphere Replication (vSR) based migration workflows in HCX and provide recommendations on how to prevent the issue.
Bulk and RAV migrations use vSR and may be impacted.

Symptoms:

HCX Bulk or RAV Migrations fail with below error in the HCX app.log: 

Sync operation couldn't be performed for Virtual Machine '<vm-moref>'. Reason: Replication has been disabled

Sync operation '<task-id>' has failed with error: vSphere Replication operation error: Virtual machine is not configured for replication.

Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 6.x

Cause

If the source vCenter has VRMS/HMS registered with version earlier than 6.5, it may disable vSR even for VMs that are not configured through HMS. This can be verified in the HMS logs by searching for messages like:

 

Disabling replication of VM MoRef: type = VirtualMachine, value = <vm-moref>

 

This can also be verified through the VM Summary’s Tasks and Events page, and looking for Disable Replication task from “com.vmware.vcHMS” during the time the bulk/RAV migration was in-progress.

 

Resolution

Upgrade VRMS/HMS to version 6.5 or later. 

Workaround:
HMS services will need to be stopped/paused while HCX Bulk and RAV migrations are in progress.
Use the following command on the VR appliance to stop the service:

service hms stop

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:

HCX Bulk and RAV migrations may fail during replication stages initial/delta/offline sync.
Migration workflows will roll back safely without any impact to source VMs being migrated.