vapp properties are not being replicated

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

• When a VM is failed over, its vApp properties are not replicated.
• This can occur for VMs that require vApp properties. 

Environment

• 9.x

Cause

vApp properties are a VMware vCenter Server function and are stored in the vCenter database. During replication—whether array-based or vSphere Replication—VMs are replicated using their respective VMX file and VMDKs, which do not contain vApp property information. As a result, vApp properties cannot be replicated using VMware Live Recovery. 

Resolution

Perform the following steps to copy and restore the vapp properties of a VM. 

1. Copying the vApp properties of a VM using the vCenter UI. 
   
   
   1. Log into the vCenter UI as an Administrator.
      
      
   2. Right-Click the VM that contains the vApp properties needed and select Edit Settings.
      
      
   3. Navigate to the vApp Options tab.
      
      
   4. Copy the vApp options properties and values that need to be re-created on the replicated VM.
      
      

2. Restoring the vApp properties of a VM using the vCenter UI:

   1. Log into the vCenter UI as an Administrator.

   2. Right-Click the VM that is missing the vApp properties needed and select Edit Settings.

   3. Navigate to the vApp Options tab.

   4. Check Enable vApp options.

   5. Under Authoring, expand Product and set Name

   6. Expand IP allocation and set the IP protocol to IPv4 or IPv6 (if you are using IPv6).

   7. Expand OVF settings and set the OVF environment transport to VMware Tools.

   8. Expand Properties then click on the New button to create a new property.

   9. Create the property in accordance to the vapp properties copied from the source VM.

   10. Click OK.