Recover fails with "Unexpected problem during target folder/resource pool validation." using vSphere replication appliance.

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Recovery operation does not proceed while browsing and selecting cluster/esxi host for recovery with following error:

ERROR: Unexpected problem during target folder/resource pool validation.

Environment

vCenter: 7.x/8.x
vSphere ESXi : 7.x/8.x
vSphere Replication: 9.x

Cause

DR UI shows "Unexpected problem during target folder/resource pool validation" for runtime error or other unexpected errors.
 HMS logs show "VmxFileAlreadyExistsFault."

This issue occurs as vmx file exists on both recovery and source site.

2024-10-23 10:59:09.507 ERROR com.vmware.hms.recovery [tcweb-12] (..vmware.hms.RecoveryManagerImpl) [operationID=xxxxx-1672-48eb-9ed1-0ef3af73ff01-HMS-xxx, sessionID=Bxxxxx] | Failed to validate recovery target for replica group GID-xxxxxxxx-45db-b4a1-xxxxxxxx: (hms.fault.recovery.VmxFileAlreadyExistsFault) {
>    faultCause = null,
>    faultMessage = null,
>    originalMessage = null,
>    vmxFilePath = [xxx_vsandatastore]VM_folder/vm_name.vmx
> }
> com.vmware.vim.binding.hms.fault.recovery.VmxFileAlreadyExistsFault: The config file '[xxx_vsandatastore]VM_folder/vm_name.vmx' already exists.
>  at com.vmware.hms.RecoveryManagerImpl.checkVmxFileNotAlreadyExists(RecoveryManagerImpl.java:674) ~[hms.jar:?]
>  at com.vmware.hms.RecoveryManagerImpl.checkVmxFilesNotAlreadyExist(RecoveryManagerImpl.java:630) ~[hms.jar:?]

Resolution

Delete [VM Name].vmx file from replica folder at recovery site and then procced for recovery.