Replication of Shared or Clustered VMDKs using Dell RecoverPoint for VMs 6.x on ESXi 8.x

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to replicate Virtual Machines (VMs) that utilize Shared or Clustered VMDKs using Dell RecoverPoint for VMs (RP4VM) version 6.x on VMware ESXi 8.x, the replication fails or the VMs are marked as unsupported for protection.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 6.x

Cause

Starting with version 6.x, Dell RecoverPoint for VMs re-architected its Splitter to integrate with the vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO) framework, replacing the legacy VIB implementation.

Because the VAIO framework operates above the fabric layer, it cannot safely intercept and filter I/O on virtual disks that are locked by fabric-level SCSI-3 persistent reservations. Consequently, any backup or replication software utilizing the VAIO framework is explicitly unsupported for replicating:

• Shared VMDKs
• Raw Device Mappings (RDMs) in physical compatibility mode

This is a third-party architectural limitation arising from the integration with the vSphere VAIO framework and is not a defect within VMware ESXi.

Resolution

To successfully replicate clustered virtual machines utilizing shared storage, customers must transition to an alternative, supported replication methodology that does not rely on the VAIO framework:

1. Agent-Based Replication (In-Guest)

Utilize application-consistent replication products installed directly within the guest operating system (e.g., Veeam Agent, Commvault, or native Windows/SQL replication). This allows data to be replicated at the OS level, bypassing hypervisor-level storage limitations.

2. Array-Based Replication (SAN)

Offload the replication task to the physical storage array (e.g., Dell SRDF, NetApp SnapMirror). Use VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to orchestrate the failover and recovery process.

Additional Information

For further details, refer to the Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines 6.1 Release Notes, which explicitly document the VAIO framework limitations regarding shared VMDKs.