Error: Unable to retrieve pairs from extension server

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

An administrator observes the following symptoms after a vSphere Replication appliance has been decommissioned or deleted without being properly unregistered:

• The Site Recovery UI displays one or more of the following:
  • A red banner error of "Unable to retrieve pairs from extension server at https://<Old_FQDN>:8043" when vCenter retains stale extension registrations for a deleted vSphere Replication appliance.
  • A red banner error of "vSphere Replication - UI error: Unknown error".
  • vSphere Replication status showing error "Not accessible".
    
    
    
• Connectivity errors appear in the logs:
  
  java.net.ConnectException: Timeout connecting to [FQDN/IP:8043].
  
  
• The vSphere Replication plug-in still appears in the vSphere Client despite the appliance no longer existing.

Environment

VMware Live Site Recovery
vSphere Replication
VMware vCenter Server

Cause

The extension registration for the decommissioned appliance remains in the vCenter Managed Object Browser (MOB)

The Site Recovery UI continues to attempt connections to the non-existent Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or IP address associated with that extension, both the vCenter Managed Object Browser (MOB) and vCenter Lookup Service retain metadata for the com.vmware.vcHms extension, causing the UI to attempt polling a non-existent FQDN.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must manually remove the stale extension and lookup service entries from the vCenter Server

Prerequisites: Take an offline backup or snapshot of the vCenter Server before making changes to the Managed Object Browser (MOB)

 

Step 1: Unregister the Extension from the MOB

1. Log in to https://<vCenter_Server_address>/mob/?moid=ExtensionManager with vCenter Server credentials
2. In the extensionList property, click the link for the com.vmware.vcHms extension key to check the key details
3. Verify that the displayed data is for a vSphere Replication appliance that is already lost
4. In ExtensionManager, click unregisterExtension
5. Enter com.vmware.vcHms for the extension key value, and click Invoke Method
6. Verify that the result displays void and not an error message which occurs if the specified extension is not registered, or if an unexpected runtime error occurs
7. Close the window
8. Refresh the ExtensionManager page and verify that the extensionList entry does not include com.vmware.vcHms
9. Remove the permissions for the HMS service account from all vCenter Server instances in the Single Sign-On domain
10. Remove the HMS service account from the vCenter Single Sign-On domain

 

Step 2: Remove Stale Lookup Service Entries

1. Log in with vCenter Server credentials to https://<vCenter_Server_address>:443/lookupservice/mob/?moid=ServiceRegistration&method=List&vmodl=1
2. To search for the VRMS registrations, replace the value in the Value field with the following text and click Invoke Method
    
   <filterCriteria> 
   <siteId></siteId> 
   <nodeId></nodeId> 
   <serviceType> 
   <product></product> 
   <type>com.vmware.vr.vrms</type> 
   </serviceType> <endpointType> 
   <protocol></protocol> 
   <type></type> 
   </endpointType> 
   </filterCriteria>
    
    
3. Look for the old VRMS registration and copy its serviceId value
4. Navigate to https://<vCenter_Server_address>:443/lookupservice/mob/?moid=ServiceRegistration&method=Delete
5. To delete the service registration, enter the serviceId value and click Invoke Method

 

Step 3: Verify the Fix

1. Log out and log back into the vSphere Client
2. Navigate to Site Recovery, the red banner error for the old appliance should no longer appear
3. Proceed with registering a new appliance if necessary

Additional Information

Uninstall vSphere Replication

Unregister vSphere Replication from vCenter Server if the Appliance Was Deleted