vSphere Replication failure on Red Hat OpenShift nodes - A specified parameter was not correct: configSpec.vms.disks

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Virtual machines acting as Red Hat OpenShift (OCP) worker nodes experience vSphere Replication failures

• The replication status shows as Error or Config Error A specified parameter was not correct: configSpec.vms.disks
• Reconfiguration tasks for the replication group fail automatically after the initial sync was successful

Environment

vSphere Replication 9.x

VMware Live Recovery 9.x

Cause

This issue is caused by a configuration mismatch between the source VM's current hardware state and the replication metadata

Red Hat OpenShift worker nodes dynamically attach and detach persistent disks to manage container storage.

vSphere Replication is designed for VMs with stable disk configurations. When OpenShift adds a new disk, the replication engine attempts to send a configSpec to vCenter that is inconsistent with the node's current hardware inventory or device keys, leading vCenter to reject the parameter.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, exclude the dynamically added disks from the vSphere Replication job (VR/VLR) and refer to Red Hat Openshift Documentation for best practices on protecting workloads

Reconfigure vSphere Replication

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client.
2. Navigate to Site Recovery > vSphere Replication > Outgoing Replications.
3. Select the affected OpenShift worker VM and click Configure Replication (or Edit Settings).
4. In the Disks section of the wizard:

1. • Identify the primary OS disk (typically Hard Disk 1).
   • Exclude all other dynamically attached data disks from replication.
   • Ensure "Auto-include new disks" is Disabled to prevent future dynamic disks from breaking the replication spec.

      5. Complete the wizard and allow the replication to resume for the OS disk only.