Dell PowerProtect Data Manager – SRM VM Unable to Be Protected When Enabling Transparent Snapshot with IO Filter 'vmwarelwd'

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

The administrator confirmed that all requirements were met through Dell PowerProtect Data Manager. However, the following error continues to occur on SRM-protected virtual machines:

Operation Failed - Operation Error: Subscription is not available or has expired. Unable to protect VM 'VM_Name' with IO filter 'vmwarelwd' for the device with key '2000', as this action requires an active subscription.

Environment

vSphere Live Recovery 9.x

Cause

The issue has been observed because the 'vmwarelwd' IO filter is being utilized simultaneously by both vSphere Replication and Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, leading to a conflict.

Resolution

Recommendation by storage vendor DELL:

• The Support for SRM VMs and TSDM PPDM backup came with PPDm 19.18.
• A certain configuration order must be followed to protect a virtual machine with both a VLSR protection group and a PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy.
• The virtual machine must first be added to the VLSR protection group and then added to the PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy.

NOTE: If this order is not followed, protection jobs can fail with the error Subscription is not available or has expired. Unable to protect VM.

If the virtual machine was first added to a PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy, perform the following steps:

1) If the virtual machine also belongs to a VLSR protection group, remove it from the group.

2) Remove the virtual machine from the PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy.

3) Add the virtual machine to the VLSR protection group.

4) Add the virtual machine to the PowerProtect Data Manager protection policy.

NOTE: The protection status of the VLSR protection group can take a while to change from Not configured to OK.