Placeholder VM resides on a different datastore than the vSphere Replication target datastore.

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

In a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or standalone environment utilizing VMware Live Site Recovery (formerly SRM) and vSphere Replication, users may observe that a Placeholder VM at the disaster recovery (DR) site is registered on a different datastore than the one selected as the "Target Datastore" during replication configuration.

Symptoms:

• The Placeholder VM configuration files (.vmx, .vmsd) are located on a datastore (e.g., Placeholder_Datastore) that does not match the replication target datastore (e.g., Replica_Disk_Datastore).

• The user expectation is for all VM-related files (replica and configuration) to reside on the same storage volume.

Environment

 

• VMware Live Site Recovery / Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

• vSphere Replication

 

Cause

This is expected behavior. Site Recovery Manager distinguishes between two distinct types of data stored at the DR site:

1. Replica Data (vSphere Replication): Contains the actual .vmdk files. These are not registered to the vCenter inventory until failover.

2. Placeholder VM (SRM): Contains only small configuration files used to reserve the VM's identity (CPU, RAM, Network) in the inventory.

The Placeholder VM placement is governed by the Placeholder Datastore configuration in the Site Pair settings, whereas the Replica Data placement is governed by the Target Datastore selection in the vSphere Replication wizard. SRM selects a datastore from the configured placeholder pool based on availability and best practices to avoid placing configuration files on the same volumes as replicated data.

Resolution

No technical "fix" is required as the system is functioning by design. To align placement with organizational requirements or to understand the logic, follow these steps:

1. Verify Placeholder Datastore Configuration:

   • Navigate to Site Recovery > Open Site Recovery.

   • Select the Site Pair and go to Configure > Placeholder Datastores.

   • Review the list of datastores designated for placeholder storage. SRM will round-robin or select based on availability from this list.

2. Alignment Best Practices:

   • Isolation: Maintain the separation of placeholder datastores from replication target datastores to avoid identity conflicts (e.g., VMs appearing with a (1) suffix).

   • Storage DRS: Ensure placeholder datastores are not part of the same Storage DRS cluster as the replica target datastores to prevent automated migrations from causing configuration mismatches.

   • Capacity: Use small, non-replicated volumes for placeholders, as they require minimal disk space (a few KB/MB per VM).

Additional Information

Configure Placeholder Datastores (Broadcom TechDocs)