Datatsore inaccessible and VMs are in orphaned state in vCenter DR site.

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After performing force cleanup , placeholder datastore went to inaccessible and VMs in Orphaned state.
• From the Site Recovery UI, Recovery Plan  > VMs giving an error as: Placeholder Create error. The name '####-####-01' already exist"
• When trying to remove the VM from protection group, getting an error as: "The name '####-####-01' already exist"
  
  

Validation:
From /opt/vmware/support/logs/srm/vmware-dr.log, an error indicates as "VM name already exists"

Unable to create/remove placeholder virtual machine at the recovery site: recovery virtual machine could not be created: the name <vm name> already exists.

Environment

VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x

Cause

The VMs in the protection and recovery group are in an inaccessible state because the placeholder datastore is no longer available. The issue occurs when the placeholder datastore is removed or deleted from the Site Recovery Manager (SRM) inventory.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, follow below steps:

1. Login to the DR site vCenter where the placeholder VM resides.
2. Search for the VM name.
3. Right click the Placeholder with the VM name.
4. Remove From Inventory in DR site vCenter.
5. Go back to the Site Recovery UI on the Production site.
6. Go to the Protection Group > VMs > select the VM name.
7. Select the three dots [...] and select Reconfigure Protection.