Configuring VMware vSphere Replication fails for a virtual machine that is configured with SCSI Bus sharing

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot configure VMware vSphere Replication for a virtual machine in the vSphere Client
• Configuring VMware vSphere Replication for a virtual machine fails with this pop-up in the vSphere Client:
  
  Configuring Virtual Machine for Replication...failed.
  The vSphere Replication configuration for disk with key null of the virtual machine has an issue: Replication not supported for disk type or backend.
  
  
• In the hms.log file, located at /opt/vmware/hms/logs on the vSphere Replication appliance, you see entries similar to:
  
  YYYY-MM-DD 15:51:28.192 ERROR hms.TaskRunnable [hms-main-thread-54] (..hms.task.TaskRunnable) operationID=DE4D8607-00000036-HMS-3232504 | Task HTID-c2c9c52f-d0df-4925-b131-1062ddd36b0d failed
  com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.ReplicationDiskConfigFault:
  reason = diskTypeNotSupported,
  vmRef = com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.ManagedObjectReference@7b01f053,
  key = 2017
  inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.ReplicationConfigFault:
  
  inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.ReplicationFault:
  
  inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.VimFault:
  
  inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.ReplicationDiskConfigFault: The vSphere Replication configuration for disk with key 2,017 of the virtual machine has an issue: Replication not supported for disk type or backend.
  
  
• One or more SCSI controllers on the virtual machine are configured with SCSI Bus sharing

Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 6.1.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.8.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.5.x
VMware vSphere Replication 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0.x
VMware vSphere Replication 5.8.x
VMware vSphere Replication 5.1.x
VMware vSphere Replication 6.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs because virtual machines that have SCSI controllers configured in SCSI bus sharing mode (either Virtual or Physical) are not supported for vSphere Replication.

Resolution

To work around this issue, you must disable the virtual machine's SCSI bus sharing configuration.

To disable SCSI bus sharing, you must change SCSI Bus Sharing mode for the virtual machine to None.

To disable SCSI Bus sharing:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
3. Select the SCSI controller that is configured for SCSI Bus Sharing and select None.
4. Click OK to reconfigure the virtual machine.
5. Reconfigure the virtual machine for vSphere Replication.

Note: If Bus sharing is required for the virtual machine, you must use array based replication to protect the virtual machine.