Error: Unable to create base virtual disk when adding large disks to vSphere Replication.

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms

• The replication process for the virtual machine server is observed to be failing after a storage expansion is performed with the following error:

"A replication error occurred at the vSphere Replication Server for replication 'VM_Name'. Details: 'Error for (datastoreUUID: "69c53a03-34bbe55f-2753-#######"), (pathname: "VM_Name/VM_Name_4.vmdk"): New capacity (644245094) is not greater than original capacity (9019431322); Extending disks'."

• Replication for a virtual machine enters an error state after adding a new hard disk:

  Unable to complete the reconfiguration task at remote site for replication group 'VM_Name' (managed object ID: 'GID-2031ce43-e818-48b7-97e0-########'): task 'HTID-90eabefb-b5f3-48c2-9c0a-a9d069f7333c'. Details: 'Unable to create base virtual disk '[Datastore_Name]VM_Name/VM_Name_4.vmdk' for primary virtual disk with key 2004.'.

• The new disk configured for replication or resized is thick-provision lazy zeroed.

• Target datastore shows a 'Disk space usage' warning or has less free space than the size of the new disk.

Environment

• vSphere Replication 9.x
• VMware Live Recovery 9.x

Cause

• The issue is caused by insufficient disk space on the target datastore, which prevents the base virtual disk from being created during the replication reconfiguration task.
• The lack of storage capacity is verified by reviewing the hms.log files on the target vSphere Replication appliance.

2026-07-27 10:09:15.150 INFO  com.vmware.hms.i18n.class com.vmware.hms.response.filter.I18nActivationResponseFilter [tcweb-17] (..response.filter.I18nActivationResponseFilter) [operationID=a7b5264d-d0dc-4233-b18b-02c2639b9738-HMS-14622403,sessionID=87277A46] | The localized message is: Insufficient disk space on datastore 'Target_Datastore'.
2026-07-27 10:09:15.150 INFO  com.vmware.hms.i18n.class com.vmware.hms.response.filter.I18nActivationResponseFilter [tcweb-17] (..response.filter.I18nActivationResponseFilter) [operationID=a7b5264d-d0dc-4233-b18b-02c2639b9738-HMS-14622403,sessionID=87277A46] | The localized message is: Unable to create base virtual disk '[Target_Datastore]VM_Name/VM_Name_4.vmdk' for primary virtual disk with key 2004.

Resolution

Add more storage capacity to the target datastore to accommodate the newly expanded or added disk, or reconfigure the replication to point the new disk to a datastore with sufficient capacity.

Change the Target Datastore Location of a Replication

Include a Disk to the Replication

If the issue persists, see Contact Broadcom Support if further assistance is required.

Additional Information

For more details on managing replication, refer to the vSphere Replication Administration Guide.