Unable to force remove enhanced replication on one site | Some replications in 'OK (RPO Violation)' state

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Some replications in 'OK (RPO Violation)' state
• The remove enhanced replication task hung. (i.e. in vCenter tasks, 'Clean up replication files' ,stuck on 20% , even you chose not to remove replica when remove the VM's replication ; unable to force remove the enhanced replication for the VM from one site)
• Attempting to remove the stale replication through the MOB is not  or task is stuck after following either  this doc (the MOB method) or  KB 381353 
• VM showing 'Not configured for replication' in SRM GUI and also confirm from the esxi host with vim-cmd hbrsvc/vmreplica.getConfig

When the hbrsrv service is in a hung state, it can affect vSphere Replication functionality and may prevent replication operations from completing or updating properly.

Environment

vSphere Replication 9.x

ESXi 7.x and 8.x

Cause

The hbrsrv service on one or more ESXi hosts is observed to be in a hung or unresponsive state.

• The hbrsrv service registers ESXi hosts as replication servers. With Enhanced vSphere Replication, replication traffic goes directly to the host at the target site.

See Enhanced vSphere Replication

Resolution

 

• Check Service Status:

  • SSH into the affected ESXi host.

  • Run the following command to verify the status of the service:

    /etc/init.d/hbrsrv status
    
    

• Restart the Service:

  • If the service is unresponsive, attempt to restart it:

    /etc/init.d/hbrsrv restart
    
    

• Verify Logs:

  • Check the host logs for any related errors:

    cat /var/log/vmkernel.log | grep hbrsrv
    
    

• If Restart Fails:

  • If the service does not respond to restart attempts, consider rebooting the ESXi host during a maintenance window.

 

Additional Information

It's recommended to check for updates or patches related to vSphere Replication and ESXi to avoid recurring issues.