Reprotect operation failing with error message: "Cannot protect virtual machine 'VM_NAME' because its config file "[Datastore_Name] VM_NAME/VM_NAME.vmx' is located on a non-replicated or non-protected datastore."

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Reprotect operation on SRM using array based replication fails with the following error messages.

"The operation was only partially completed for the protection group 'Protection_Group_Name' since a protected VM belonging to it was not successful in completing the operation." 

"Cannot protect virtual machine 'VM_NAME' because its config file "[Datastore_Name] VM_NAME/VM_NAME.vmx' is located on a non-replicated or non-protected datastore."

 

 

Environment

VMware Live Site Recovery 9.0.x

Cause

This issue happens because the backing datastore replication setting was removed from the storage end.

The following log excerpts can be seen when checking the 'vmware-dr' log. The date, time, and datastore number may vary depending on the environment.

 

2025-09-18T16:17:52.457+05:30 verbose vmware-dr[01459] [SRM@6876 sub=Storage] Received updates on replication settings from remote site: (vmodl.query.PropertyCollector.Change) [
-->    (vmodl.query.PropertyCollector.Change) {
-->       name = "localReplicationSettings.deviceGroupSettings["#########"]",
-->       op = "remove",
-->       val = <unset>
-->    }
--> ]
2025-09-18T16:17:52.457+05:30 verbose vmware-dr[01459] [SRM@6876 sub=Storage] Noticed removal of replication settings for '#########'

2025-09-18T16:47:50.399+05:30 warning vmware-dr[16959] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=#######] Recovered datastore 'datastore-5152' in group 'vm-protection-group-#####' is not replicated
2025-09-18T16:47:50.399+05:30 warning vmware-dr[16959] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=#######] Recovered datastore 'datastore-5153' in group 'vm-protection-group-#####' is not replicated
2025-09-18T16:47:50.399+05:30 info vmware-dr[16959] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=######] Generated new settings for group 'vm-protection-group-#####': (dr.storageProvider.GroupSettings) {
-->    array = 'dr.storage.ReplicatedArrayPair:#######-####-####-####-############:array-pair-####',
-->    datastore = (vim.Datastore) [
-->       'vim.Datastore:#######-####-####-####-############:datastore-5152',
-->       'vim.Datastore:#######-####-####-####-############:datastore-5153'
-->    ]
--> }

2025-09-18T16:47:50.578+05:30 warning vmware-dr[16968] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=#######-####-####-####-############-reprotect:16e3:62f3:0a7c:78f8] Datastore 'datastore-5152' is no longer replicated
2025-09-18T16:47:50.578+05:30 warning vmware-dr[16968] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=#######-####-####-####-############-reprotect:16e3:62f3:0a7c:78f8] Datastore 'datastore-5153' is no longer replicated
2025-09-18T16:47:50.578+05:30 error vmware-dr[16968] [SRM@6876 sub=StorageProvider opID=#######-####-####-####-############-reprotect:16e3:62f3:0a7c:78f8] Config file '[########] [Datastore_Name] VM_NAME/VM_NAME.vmx' of virtual machine 'VM_Name' is located on a non-replicated datastore 'datastore-5153'

Resolution

Contact the storage vendor and configure the replication setting again on the datastore and re-run the reprotect operation.

Additional Information

Similar issue can happen for other reasons as well. Please check the following knowledge base articles.

• Invalid: Virtual machine 'VM' is no longer protected. Cannot protect virtual machine 'VM' because its config file '[Local Non Replicated] VM/VM.vmx' is located on a non-replicated or non-protected datastore.
• Virtual machine is no longer protected. Cannot protect virtual machine because its config file is located on a non-replicated or non-protected datastore.
• Reprotect failed with Cannot protect virtual machine because its config file is located on a non-replicated or non-protected datastore.