How to manage vSphere replication solution in vLCM cluster image manually

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

• The automatic installation of vSphere replication agent (vmware-hbr-agent) is disabled

on vSphere Replication appliance configuration file  /opt/vmware/hms/conf/hms-configuration.xml, hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib parameter is set to false

<hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>false</hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib>


Note if this is set to false then all new hosts will require the HBR vib to be manually installed in order to participate in replication. Do not set this to false unless guided to do so by Global Support.

• You are unable to add vmware-hbr-agent in the cluster image configuration.

 

 

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 9.x
• VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x
• vSphere Replication 8.x
• vSphere Replication 9.x

Resolution

• Configure cluster Remediation Settings with Parallel remediation. This will prevent the VMware-HBR-Agent update while replicated VMs are running on ESXi host.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/managing-host-and-cluster-lifecycle-8-0/configuring-vlcm-remediation-settings-1/configure-the-vlcm-remediation-settings.html

Please note - This action will will effectively wait of the host to go in maintenance mode for the hbr-agent to be upgraded. If immediate upgrade is required, the step can be skipped, but there is a risk that ongoing replication sessions might be interrupted.  

• Download /opt/vmware/hbr/vib/VMware-HBR-Agent-xxxxxxxx-depot.zip  from vSphere Replication appliance via WinSCP  \

Please Note - The location of the zip file has changed to /opt/vmware/share/hbr/vib/VMware-HBR-Agent-xxxxxx-depot.zip from vSphere Replication 9.0.3

example:

• Import VMware-HBR-Agent-xxxxxxxx-depot.zip in Lifecycle Manager

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/managing-host-and-cluster-lifecycle-8-0/working-with-vsphere-lifecycle-manager-depots/updating-the-vlcm-depot.html

• From vCenter  / Developper Center / API explorer , select endpoint <vcenter_fqdn> select API : esx,  deploy settings/clusters/software/solutions/PUT

Enter the required parameters:

• • cluster: domain-c<number>

Notes: You only need to copy domain-c<number> part of the URL. For example: When you navigate to cluster in vSphere client, your URL will be similar to this: https://<fqdn-of-vCenter-server>/ui/app/cluster;nav=h/urn:vmomi:ClusterComputeResource:domain-c31:ce4a7b9f-768c-2222-3333-fe50bd6341c8/summary. You only need to copy domain-c31 to use in the steps below.

• • solution: VMware-HBR-Agent

• • request_body: (see example attached file request_body.json)

Notes:  You only need to copy xxxxxxxx which  is the vib version. As an example, for VMware-HBR-Agent-8.0.3-0.0.24143343-depot.zip, "xxxxxxxx"= "8.0.3-0.0.24143343". (see attached file request_body.json)

 

• Click "EXECUTE"

• Remediate cluster to install VMware-HBR-Agent

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/managing-host-and-cluster-lifecycle-8-0/using-images-to-install-and-update-esxi-hosts-and-clusters/remediating-a-cluster-or-a-standalone-host-against-a-single-image.html