How to move an existing Virtual Machine Hard Disk (VMDK) which is being replicated by vSphere Replication to a new Virtual Machine.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

1. The Virtual machine is being replicated by vSphere Replication.

2. Detach the VMDK from the old Virtual machine and attach to the new Virtual Machine.

Environment

VMware vSphere 7.0
VMware vSphere 8.0
VMware vSphere Replication 8.0
VMware vSphere Replication 9.0

 

Cause

The old Virtual machine is being decommisioned.

Resolution

Shut down both virtual machine.

Ensure both the source and destination virtual machines are powered off. 

The VMDK file must be accessible to both virtual machines.

Stop replication of the old virtual machine in vSphere Replication UI.

To remove a virtual machine (VM) from replication in vSphere Replication, you need to stop the replication for that VM. This process involves accessing the Site Recovery interface, selecting the relevant replication, and then choosing to remove it. You can choose to retain the replica disks or not during this process

Stop Replicating a Virtual Machine

Detach the disk from the old virtual machine.

Open the virtual machine's settings in the VMware vSphere Client.
Navigate to the Hard Disks.
Select the VMDK you want to remove and choose the Remove option.

Attach the Virtual Machine Hard Disk (VMDK) to the new Virtual machine.

To attach a virtual machine hard disk, navigate to the virtual machine's settings.
Click the Add New Device button. Select Existing Hard Disk from the drop-down menu.
If adding an existing disk, select "Existing Hard Disk". 

Power on the Virtual Machine, validate the disk is online and data is visible.

Additional Information

vSphere Replication is host-based, it's independent of the underlying storage type. 

A virtual machine can have multiple virtual disks (VMDKs) associated with it. These VMDKs can reside on different datastores within the same vCenter environment. 

When replicating a virtual machine with multiple VMDKs, vSphere Replication will replicate each VMDK individually.