Enhanced replication of Virtual Machine which was previously working fails with error "No connection to VR Server for virtual machine <vm_name> on host <host_name> in cluster <cluster_name>: Unknown'."
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Enhanced replication of Virtual Machine which was previously working fails with error "No connection to VR Server for virtual machine <vm_name> on host <host_name> in cluster <cluster_name>: Unknown'."

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Article ID: 408992

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

  • Virtual Machine (VM) which was previously replicating using enhanced replication, fails to replicate with the error "A replication error occurred at the vSphere Replication Server for replication '<vm_name>'. Details: 'No connection to VR Server for virtual machine <vm_name> on host <host_name> in cluster <cluster_name>: Unknown'.":
  • The replication state of the VM goes to "Not Active" and once it lapses it's RPO, goes to "Not Active (RPO Violation)".

Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 9.x

Cause

  • This issue occurs when the target ESXi server is not configured for Enhanced replication (such as required ports are not open, hbr-agent vib is not installed and so on.).

  • vSphere Replication automatically registers all hosts which are in the vCenter inventory, to be used as target replication servers.

  • So a host, which is not intended to be used for replication, but can access the target datastores, may be chosen during the rebalancing of replication across servers.

  • Since they have not been configured for enhanced replication, the replication of the VM will fail when these hosts are chosen.

Resolution

  • If the host (replication server) is intended to be used for vSphere Replication and this error is seen, refer Cannot configure virtual machines for vSphere Enhanced Replication.

  • If the host chosen, is not intended to be used for enhanced replication, it must be omitted from being registered for vSphere Replication.

  • This can be done by following the below steps:

    1. Go to vSphere Client > Select the host which is not yet configured for replication > Select the Summary tab.

    2. In the Summary tab of the host, scroll down to Tags and click on "Assign".

    3. Here assign the tag, "com.vmware.vr.disallowedHost".

    4. Repeat the above steps on all the 3 hosts which are not configured for replication yet.

  • As soon as this is done, rebalance of the VM's replication will trigger and the VM will use a different replication server.

  • If the hosts are configured for replication later on, just remove this tag to allow it to be registered for vSphere Replication.

Additional Information

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