vSphere Replication Appliance failing to bind in 9.0.3

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

vSphere Replication operations cease to function after an upgrade.
This issue manifests as all replication tasks failing and the vSphere Replication service (hbrsrv) failing to start or operate correctly.
Log analysis reveals "Cannot assign requested address" errors, indicating the service is attempting to bind to an incorrect IP address.

 

/opt/vmware/etc/hbr/hbrsrv-nic.xml shows incorrect IP address:

<config><ipForHMS /><ipForFilter>##</ipForFilter><ipForNFC /></config>

Both sites must either use IPv4 or IPv6 address. Replication appliance cannot use mix of IPv4 & IPv6.

Environment

vSphere Replication 9.0.3

Cause

The primary cause is an IP address configured within the vSphere Replication Appliance's internal network configuration file, /opt/vmware/etc/hbr/hbrsrv-nic.xml. 

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the hbrsrv-nic.xml file must be manually updated to reflect the VRA's current IP address, and the hbrsrv service restarted.

1. Take snapshot of the vSphere replication appliance.
   SSH into the vSphere Replication Appliance as root.
2. Edit the configuration file: Open /opt/vmware/etc/hbr/hbrsrv-nic.xml using a text editor (e.g., vi or nano).
   vi /opt/vmware/etc/hbr/hbrsrv-nic.xml
3. Update the IP address: Locate the <ipForFilter> tag and replace the with correct IP address (##).
   • <config><ipForHMS /><ipForFilter>##</ipForFilter><ipForNFC /></config>
4. Save and close the file.
5. Restart the HBR service:
   systemctl restart hbrsrv
6. Check the service status to ensure it's running correctly:
   systemctl status hbrsrv
7. Reconnect the site pair: From the vSphere Replication user interface within vCenter Server, re-establish the connection between the replication sites. This ensures that both vSphere Replication instances are aware of the updated network parameters and can re-establish replication channels.

Additional Information

This issue will be fixed in future releases of vSphere Replication.