Error "Unable to create replica placeholder disk" while adding a VM into protection in VMware Cloud Director Availability

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• When adding a Replication Tracking (RT) VM into protection in VMware Cloud Director Availability, the task fails with an error:

Unable to create replica placeholder disk '[Datastore_501] C4-4xxxxx7c-fxxc-4xxe-axx3-dxxxxxxxxxx4/<VM_diskname>'.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7.1

VMware Cloud Director 10.5.1

Cause

The source VM has two VMDKs located on separate datastores. Since they reside on different datastores, the VMDK names are identical.

Example -

[Datastore_512] VM_win-2xx2-01-xxxd/test-sp-win-2xx2-01-xgbd.vmdk

[Datastore_501] VM_win-2xx2-01-xxxd/test-sp-win-2xx2-01-xgbd.vmdk

Resolution

The issue is resolved in the VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7.2

Download VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7.2

Workaround:

The workaround involves disabling RTVMs and reverting to independent disks until the fix.

The steps to disable RT VM are outlined clearly, and it's important to ensure that a backup of the application.properties file is taken before making any changes. 

1. SSH to the Replication Manager appliance at the destination site.
2. Navigate to ‘/opt/vmware/h4/cloud/config/application.properties’
3. Run the following command to back up the current configuration: cp application.properties application.properties.backup
4. Edit the application.properties file with a text editor (e.g., vi application.properties).
5. Change ‘vcd.rt.vms=true’ to false
6. Save the file.
7. Restart the corresponding service: systemctl restart cloud.service

Additional Information

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7.2 Release Notes