Failed to register VRMS Illegal character in hostname at index 15

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

You cannot reconfigure vSphere replication appliance.

ERROR
Operation Failed
A general system error occurred: Failed to register VRMS
Operation ID: 73368c23-113a-45f9-a5a8-f35568d97150

/opt/vmware/hms/logs/hms.log

HMS SERVER ERROR

org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException: Error creating bean with name 'lifecycleProcessor': Unsatisfied dependency expressed through field 'hmsPhoneHomeCollector'; nested
exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'com.vmware.hms.phcollector.HmsPhoneHomeCollector#0' defined in URL [jar:file:/opt/vmware/hms/lib
s/ph-collector-8.X.0.jar!/META-INF/ph-collector.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is (hms.fault.HmsRuntimeFault) {
   faultCause = null,
   faultMessage = null,
   originalMessage = null
}

/opt/vmware/hms/logs/hms-configtool.log

2025-03-03 17:47:50.338 ERROR com.vmware.hms.config.cli.App [main] (..jvsl.util.LoggingErrorStream) [] | Unhandled exception
2025-03-03 17:47:50.339 ERROR com.vmware.hms.config.cli.App [main] (..jvsl.util.LoggingErrorStream) [] | null
java.lang.RuntimeException: java.net.URISyntaxException: Illegal character in hostname at index 15: https://vsphere_repl.broadcom.local:8043/versions/hms-supported-versions.xml

Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 8.x

Cause

The error occurs when the hostname of the replication appliance contains an underscore '_' or a special character that causes the error. 

Resolution

1. Delete and recreate the DNS record without an underscore (_) or special character in the DNS manager 

2. Update the hostname in the appliance with the FQDN 

3. Change the certificate of the appliance from VAMI 

4. Reconfigure the appliance 

5. Reconnect the site pair 

Additional Information

It is not considered good practice to use an underscore in the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) of a server or VM as it violates industry standards and can cause compatibility issues with certain applications and services.

The use of underscores in hostnames violates RFC 1123's valid defined characters for a domain name. 

We can only issue certificates for domains and subdomains using:

Lowercase letters a–z

Uppercase letters A–Z

Digits 0–9

Special characters: period (.) and hyphen (‐)