Automatic Backups fail when using vSphere Replication Appliance

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

If you are using vSphere Replication with an external backup vendor, the snapshots from vSphere Replication may conflict with the snapshots that the backup vendor. Since two snapshots cannot be run at the same time, the backup will often either fail to begin or fail to complete. 

Cause

This occurs when the Recovering Point Objective (RPO) is set too low. If the RPO takes less time than it takes to complete a backup, the backup will not be able to begin or finish snapshotting the VM. 

Resolution

Increase the RPO to be longer than the time it takes to complete a backup or pause replication during the backup process. 

Additional Information

For more information on configuring the RPO see: Recovery Point Objective

For information on vSphere Replication see: vSphere Replication Best Practices or About vSphere Replication.