Error: 500 Internal Server Error or blank screen when selecting target datastore - VMware Live Recovery

Products

• VMware Site Recovery Manager

Issue/Introduction

Encounter a timeout, blank screen, or an HTTP 500 error when selecting a Target Datastore during virtual machine replication configuration. This issue occurs frequently in multisite environments where the vCenter appliance and VMware Live Recovery instance are separated by significant distance (e.g., 300km) or high latency.

 

Symptoms

• The UI displays a blank screen or a spinning icon at the 'Target Datastore' selection step.
• The browser developer tools show an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error for the following call:
  • `https://<VC-FQDN>/dr/requestHandlers/getStoragePolicyList?mode=free`
• Re-logging into the vSphere Client allows temporary progress, but previous configuration work is lost.
• The dr.log on the vSphere Replication appliance reports:
  • `java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot get datastores information.`

Environment

• VMware vSphere 7.x / 8.x
• VMware Live Recovery / vSphere Replication 8.x / 9.x
• Storage DRS (SDRS) enabled on target clusters in remote Data Centers.

Cause

The vCenter Storage Profile Service (SPS) returns a null or error response due to health or performance issues. This is often triggered when SDRS has space utilization threshold violations, leading to orphaned entries in the persistent state.

Resolution

This issue is targeted to be fixed in a future release. How to subscribe to this article to receive updates on the fix status.

 

Workaround:

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) via SSH.
2. Restart the VMware Storage Profile Service (SPS): service-control --restart vmware-sps
3. Verify that no datastore in the SDRS cluster has exceeded its space threshold.
4. Free up space on impacted datastores or increase the SDRS space threshold in vCenter.
5. Refresh the vSphere Client and attempt to configure the replication.

Additional Information

• Stopping, starting or restarting VMware vCenter Server Appliance services
• To speak with a customer representative or a Support Engineer see Contact Broadcom support. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on your respective region.