Placeholder VM creation fails with InvalidArgument spec.managedBy.extensionKey - VMware Live Site Recovery

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Placeholder VM creation task fails with error: "Placeholder Create Error: A specified parameter was not correct: spec.managedBy.extensionKey"

  

• The VM protection task fails with error: "Operation Failed A specified parameter was not correct: spec.managedBy.extensionKey"

Environment

VMware Live Site Recovery 9.0.x

Cause

• The required extension key com.vmware.vcDr is missing from the target vCenter Server extension list.

• This prevents the VLSR appliance from successfully registering or interacting with the vCenter to create placeholder VMs.

 

Validation:

• The target VLSR appliance shows the following error when attempting to create the placeholder VM, which indicates an invalid argument:

  /opt/vmware/support/logs/srm/vmware-dr.log:

  2026-09-02T01:31:22.106Z warning vmware-dr[267868] [SRM@6876 sub=PlaceholderVmManager opID=2dfe1057-b8b9-4dd8-b359-5e43f824b418-repairPlaceholder:3ab6] Placeholder creation failed. Finding a new host. Exception: Fault cause: vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument

• Looking at the recovery site vCenter's /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log , it can be seen that the create placeholder VM task fails stating invalid property of an extension key. Looking further at the spec of the VM placeholder creation task it can be seen that the extension key used in this case is the "com.vmware.vcDr". This is the extension key for the VLSR:

  2026-09-02T11:29:43.305+10:00 error vpxd[05893] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=3c47c70c-####-####-####-############-repairPlaceholder:9560-10] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-4276767 -- 5254efe3-####-####-####-############(52d0b046-####-####-####-############) -- group-v276424 -- vim.Folder.createVm: :vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument
--> Result:
--> (vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = <unset>,
-->    invalidProperty = "spec.managedBy.extensionKey"
-->    msg = ""
--> }
--> Args:
.
.

  -->    extraConfig = (vim.option.OptionValue) [
-->       (vim.option.OptionValue) {
-->          key = "srm.managedBy.extKey",
-->          value = "com.vmware.vcDr"
-->       },
-->       (vim.option.OptionValue) {
-->          key = "srm.managedBy.type",
-->          value = "placeholderVm"
-->       }
-->    ],

• On validating the recovery site vCenter's extension list, it could be seen that the "com.vmware.vcDr" was missing:

  1. Go to MOB page of the vCenter: https://vc_fqdn/mob/?moid=ExtensionManager

  2. Under "extensionList" validate if "com.vmware.vcDr" extension is present. You may need to click on "(more..)" to view the full list.

   

Resolution

1. Reconfigure the VLSR appliance to force it to re-establish the connection to the vCenter Server and redeploy the missing extension key.

2. Retry to protect the VM.