Unable to Remove VMDK from a Virtual Machine Protected by vSphere Replication

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• Attempting to remove a VMDK from a virtual machine fails.
• The virtual machine is protected by vSphere Replication.
• The following error is reported in the vSphere Client:

Cannot complete operation due to concurrent modification by another operation.

The configuration of the virtual machine has changed since the request was made.

• The issue occurs while performing a Remove Hard Disk operation.

Environment

• ESXi: 8.0 Update 3
• vSphere Replication: 9.0.X

Cause

The virtual machine is actively being modified by vSphere Replication.

At the time of the VMDK removal attempt, vSphere Replication is running a background task such as:

• Reconfigure virtual machine replication

This task is initiated by the vSphere Replication service account, typically displayed as:

com.vmware.vr-sa-*@vsphere1.local

While this task is in progress, the virtual machine configuration is locked, preventing concurrent configuration changes such as removing a VMDK.

Resolution

1. Open the vSphere Client.
2. Navigate to the affected virtual machine.
3. Check the Recent Tasks pane.
4. Wait for the Reconfigure virtual machine replication task to complete.
5. Once the task has finished successfully, retry the Remove Hard Disk (VMDK) operation.

The VMDK removal should complete successfully after the replication reconfiguration task finishes.

Additional Information

• This behavior is expected when vSphere Replication is actively updating the virtual machine configuration.
• Avoid making configuration changes to a replicated virtual machine while replication tasks are running to prevent similar errors.