Reprotect Fails with "Unable to reverse replication for the virtual machine" due to Compatibility Mismatch (VMware Live Recovery)
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Reprotect Fails with "Unable to reverse replication for the virtual machine" due to Compatibility Mismatch (VMware Live Recovery)

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Article ID: 451512

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Reprotect operations fail after a planned failover in VMware Live Recovery (VLR) environments. The task fails with the error "Unable to configure scale-out replication" when source and target hosts or VLR versions are misaligned.

  • Upon reprotecting the VM post failover, the task fails with below error.

Unable to reverse replication for the virtual machine 'VM_Name'. The operation is not allowed in the current state.

  • Upon verifying the logs /var/log/vmware/hms/hms.log on VLR appliance, it reports error: Unable to configure scale-out replication.

2026-08-08 04:12:11.266 ERROR vmware.hms.TaskRunnable [hms-main-thread-262] (..jvsl.util.Slf4jUtil) {operationID=9d462978-8125-4e60-b9ba-e015a9922048-reprotect:e4:ap:d5-HMS-13736} [task=HTID-b6ebc10a-3c55-4de5-9343-####, task=HTID-5ed6398f-3d07-456d-874e-####] | runTask-failed name: "Reverse configure replication"; class: com.vmware.hms.replication.SecondaryGroupImpl$4; groupMoId: GID-23bc978f-b1fb-3ded-9dcd-####; destinationSite: MoRef: type= HmsRemoteHmsServer, value = HMSSRV-79c8b030-bcfa-44d5-8e8c-####, serverGuid = 3c4d6865-6134-40eb-9897-####; primaryGroupInitialVersion: null; secondaryGroupInitialVersion: null; useAdminViews: false; eventPartitionId: null; optimizeReprotect: true; reverseReplication: true; err: Unable to configure scale-out replication.; time: 10 ms
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to configure scale-out replication.

Environment

  • VMware Live Recovery (VLR) 9.x

  • Source ESXi Version: 9.0.2

  • Target ESXi Version: 9.1.0

  • VLR Appliance Version: 9.0.5

Cause

  • The failure occurs due to a compatibility mismatch between the ESXi host versions and the VLR appliance version. This prevents the "Reverse replication" configuration fail for the VMs" task from successfully deploying the HBR agent components on the cluster.

  • Upon verifying the logs /var/log/vmware/hms/hms.log on VLR appliance, the below events may show up.

2026-08-08 04:09:11.523 DEBUG vapi.client.VapiService [hms-main-scheduled-thread-3] (..vapi.client.VapiService$VapiConn) {} [] | vapi(468b9914)@https://####:443/esx-lcm disabled com.vmware.jvsl.vapi.client.VapiService$VapiConn@3ee81630
2026-08-08 04:09:11.523 ERROR hms.vib.VibDeployer [hms-main-scheduled-thread-3] (..hms.vib.VibDeployer) {} [] | Failed to deploy HBR agent component on domain-c9 com.vmware.hms.HmsException: Failed to install the HBR Agent component on domain-c9
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VlcmComponentDeployerService.installHbrAgentComponent(VlcmComponentDeployerService.java:471) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VibDeployer.doDeploy(VibDeployer.java:134) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VibDeployer.startDeploy(VibDeployer.java:105) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VibDeployer.lambda$0(VibDeployer.java:110) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$RunnableWithDiagnosticContext.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:146) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$2.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:106) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.TlsPreservingWrapper$2.run(TlsPreservingWrapper.java:47) ~[jvsl-sessions-9.0.5.0100.jar:?]
        at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
        at java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) [?:?]
Caused by: com.vmware.vim.binding.hms.fault.HbrAgentCantBeInstalledFault
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VlcmComponentDeployerService.raiseUnrelatedDeltasIssue(VlcmComponentDeployerService.java:354) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VlcmComponentDeployerService.applyDesiredStateToCluster(VlcmComponentDeployerService.java:310) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VlcmComponentDeployerService.applyDesiredState(VlcmComponentDeployerService.java:283) ~[hms.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.hms.vib.VlcmComponentDeployerService.installHbrAgentComponent(VlcmComponentDeployerService.java:468) ~[hms.jar:?]
        ... 12 more
2026-08-08 04:09:11.523 INFO  hms.vib.VibDeployer [hms-main-scheduled-thread-3] (..hms.vib.VibDeployer) {} [] | Scheduling a retry for VIB deployment on ManagedObjectReference: type = ClusterComputeResource, value = domain-c9, serverGuid = null

Resolution

  1. Review the VMware Interoperability Matrix to confirm supported version combinations for your specific environment.

  2. Upgrade the VLR appliance or ESXi hosts to versions that are officially compatible.

  3. If the reprotect task continues to fail after version alignment, verify logs in the VLR appliance (hms.log) for specific HBR deployment errors.

  4. If an immediate workaround is required to power on VMs on the primary site, perform a force recovery by shutting down VMs on the DR site and powering them on at the source site.

Additional Information

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