Error: “The provided recovery settings are not compatible with replication placement. Invalid entry: 'deviceChange[0].device.backing.fileName'” during VCDA failover in VMware Cloud Director UI

Products

• VMware Cloud Director
• VMware Cloud Director Availability - Disaster Recovery 4.x

Issue/Introduction

 

• During a VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) failover from one datacenter to another, the operation fails with the error:
  “The provided recovery settings are not compatible with replication placement. Invalid entry: 'deviceChange[0].device.backing.fileName'”

• The failure occurs when VCDA attempts to place workloads on ESXi hosts that do not have access to the target datastores.

• This behavior has been observed in environments with multiple independent datacenters managed by a single VCDA Manager.

 

Environment

 

• VMware Cloud Director 10.6

• VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.7

• vCenter Server 8.0.x

• ESXi 8.0.x

 

Cause

This issue can occur when the VCDA Replicator services select ESXi hosts from outside the intended recovery site. If the chosen host does not have visibility to the datastore where the VM disks must be restored, vCenter is unable to validate the VM configSpec, which results in the error referencing device.backing.fileName.

 

 

 

 

Resolution

To address this issue, ensure that recovery operations are limited to resources with datastore access in the target site:

1. Check Org VDC placement settings
   • Confirm that the target Org VDC is backed by clusters and datastores that are accessible to all ESXi hosts within the recovery site.
   • Ensure that storage policies are defined per site and mapped correctly in VCD.
     
     
2. Validate VM device configuration
   
   • Confirm that no ISO images, floppies, or RDM devices are mounted on the VM prior to initiating failover.
   • Remove or unmount any unnecessary devices before retrying.
     
     
3. Review VCDA failover wizard placement
   • Explicitly select the target compute resource (cluster/resource pool) for recovery rather than leaving placement automatic.
   • Run the “Validate Placement” option in the VCDA UI to confirm datastore/host compatibility before initiating failover.
     
     
4. Replicator deployment best practices
   • Deploy VCDA Replicator appliances in each site and align them with local ESXi hosts/datastores.
   • Avoid sharing replicators across sites that do not have common datastore visibility.