Failed to create snapshots of replica devices. Failed to create snapshot of replica consistency group xxxxxxx. SRA command 'testFailoverStart' failed for consistency group 'xxxxxxx'

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

• In a VMware Live Site Recovery 9.x, environment using PowerFlex array-based replication, the Test Failover operation fails during the recovery workflow with the following error:

  “Failed to create snapshots of replica devices. SRA command ‘testFailoverStart’ failed for consistency group. One or several volumes not mounted to SDC. Check volume mappings to SDCs.”

• Replication is fully configured between the PowerFlex arrays, device discovery completes successfully and replicated datastores are visible. However, the Test Failover does not complete.

Environment

• VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x
• VMware Live Site Recovery 9.x
• DELL Powerflex 

Cause

The replicated volumes in the affected PowerFlex replication consistency group are not mapped to any SDC (host initiator) on the recovery site. During the Test Failover workflow, the PowerFlex SRA requires the replica volumes to be mapped to an SDC so that snapshots can be created and accessed. When the required volume-to-SDC mappings are missing, the testFailoverStart command fails.

In SRA logs below events will be seen

2025-12-24T10:24:44.843Z verbose vmware-dr[04954] [SRM@6876 sub=DrTask ctxID=vctyd opID=28e30199-3103-4bba-b735-4da447dcf338] [528a8] Task 'dr.recovery.Recovery'
 completed with result: (dr.recovery.RecoveryResult) [
-->    (dr.recovery.RecoveryResult) {
-->       runKey = 4575,
-->       operation = "test",
-->       options = (dr.recovery.RecoveryOptions) {
-->          note = <unset>,
-->          syncData = true,
-->          plannedFailover = false,
-->          migrateEligibleVms = false,
-->          skipProtectionSiteOperations = false,
-->          autoAnswerPrompts = false,
-->          recoveryPoint = <unset>

-->       errors = (vmodl.MethodFault) [
-->          (dr.storageProvider.fault.StorageTestFailoverStartFailed) {
-->             faultCause = (dr.storageProvider.fault.StorageDeviceGroupTestFailoverStartFailed) {
-->                faultCause = (dr.storage.fault.CommandDeviceGroupFailed) {
-->                   faultCause = (dr.storage.fault.LocalizableAdapterFault) {
-->                      faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->                      faultMessage = <unset>,
-->                      code = "0D48A130-8171-49E2AE955615.5035",
-->                      arg = <unset>
-->                      msg = "One or several volumes not mounted to SDC
--> Check volume mappings to SDCs"
-->                   },
-->                   faultMessage = <unset>,
-->                   commandName = "testFailoverStart",
-->                   deviceGroup = "2d642d4400000000"
-->                   msg = "SRA command 'testFailoverStart' failed for consistency group '2d642d4400000000'. One or several volumes not mounted to SDC
--> Check volume mappings to SDCs"
-->                },
-->                faultMessage = <unset>,
-->                deviceGroup = "2d642d4400000000"
-->                msg = "Failed to create snapshot of replica consistency group 2d642d4400000000. SRA command 'testFailoverStart' failed for consistency group '2d642d4400000000'. One or several volumes not
mounted to SDC
--> Check volume mappings to SDCs"
-->             },
-->             faultMessage = <unset>
-->             msg = "Failed to create snapshots of replica devices. Failed to create snapshot of replica consistency group 2d642d4400000000. SRA command 'testFailoverStart' failed for consistency group '2d642d4400000000'. One or several volumes not mounted to SDC
--> Check volume mappings to SDCs"

Resolution

1. Map the replicated volumes to the appropriate SDC (host initiator) on the recovery site.
2. After the replicated volumes are correctly mapped to the recovery hosts, rerun the Test Failover operation. The task should complete successfully once the SRA can access the replica devices.