Unable to configure VM replication. Error seen when attempting to select target datastore on Site Recovery: "ERROR Cannot get datastores information."

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The following error occurs during the 'Select target datastore' step when attempting to reconfigure or configure new VM replication on Site Recovery page:

  "ERROR Cannot get datastores information. Operation ID: ######"

  

• This issue may be observed from both the production and recovery site, when configuring replication to their respective remote site.

• The issue may temporarily resolve for a while if the vCenter of either PROD or DR is rebooted.

Environment

VMware Live Site Recovery 9.x

VMware vSphere Replication 9.x

Cause

• This issue is caused by incorrect FQDN in either site's VLSR (VMware Live Site Recovery) or VR (vSphere Replication) appliance certificate, due to which the Site Recovery page would be unable to fetch the target datastore information.

• This can be validated by:

  1. Log into the VAMI page of the VLSR or VR appliance: https://vr_ip:5480

  2. Navigate to the Certificate tab.

  3. Here, validate if the "CN" value of "Issued to" in the certificate matches the FQDN of the respective appliance.

• The below events will be observed in the var/log/vmware/dr-client-plugin/drplugin.log of the appliance which is serving the Site Recovery plugin:

  2025-12-04 09:11:45,521 [srm-reactive-thread-123] INFO  com.vmware.dr.plugin.handlers.dashboard.SrmHealthStatusHandler ########-####-####-####-############  - Checking health using URL: https://<vlsr_fqdn>:443/drserver
2025-12-04 09:11:45,535 [srm-reactive-thread-121] WARN  com.vmware.dr.plugin.utils.ConnectionUtils #########-####-####-####-############  - Problem occurred while checking connection to https://<vlsr_fqdn>:5480/configure
java.io.IOException: HTTPS hostname wrong:  should be <<vlsr_fqdn>>
        at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.checkURLSpoofing(Unknown Source)
        at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(Unknown Source)
        at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)
        at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
        at com.vmware.dr.plugin.utils.ConnectionUtils.connect(ConnectionUtils.java:79)
        at com.vmware.dr.plugin.utils.ConnectionUtils.connect(ConnectionUtils.java:66)

• Shortname is also not allowed in the certificate for the appliance, it must be the complete FQDN.

Resolution

To resolve this issue perform the below:

1. Log into VAMI page of the impacted VLSR or VR appliance: https://vlsr_ip:5480

2. Click on the Certificate page, and click on "Change". Validate that the FQDN and IP is correct and then click on "Change". Refer document if using custom or CA-signed certificate - Change the SSL Certificate of the vSphere Replication Appliance.

3. Once the certificate is changed, reconfigure the VLSR/VR appliance.

Once this is completed, it should now be possible to configure replication of the VM successfully.

Additional Information

The following issue may also be observed if the FQDN in the certificate does not match the host's FQDN - Site Recovery Plug-in displays "Unknown error. The latest version of Site Recovery UI is not available. Some functionality might be limited" on the SRM appliance.