The time skew issue between the vCenter and SRM was causing the plugin issue to throw error "Unable to retrieve Site Recovery Manager summary data."

Products

• VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x

Issue/Introduction

On the DR (Disaster Recovery) SRM (Site Recovery Manager) site, recovery plan steps are not visible, and the option to test is greyed out. Initiating the SRM test from the primary site completes without errors. Direct access to SRM and VR (vSphere Replication) via the following URLs is functional:

• https://<SRM IP Address>/dr
• https://<VR IP Address>/dr

Symptoms:

• Error Message:   Unable to retrieve Site Recovery Manager summary data. Unable to log in to 'Site Recovery Manager Server at https://##-###-######-01.######.net:443/drserver/vcdr/vmomi/sdk'.
• Operation ID: #######-1234-5678-9011-############
• Timestamp: 8/31/24, 5:55:55 AM +0000
  
  
  
• Also,  peripheral vSphere nodes can throw task failure errors due to mismatched timestamp. A runtime error occurred in vSphere Server. Exception details: 'Invalid message timestamp, created time is in the future' 

Environment

• VMware vSphere Replication 8.X
• VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.X

Cause

• The error "Unable to retrieve Site Recovery Manager summary data" can occur due to a time skew issue between the vCenter Server and Site Recovery Manager (SRM). This is typically indicated by the error message: "Time skew between this machine and the vCenter Server is too large."
• This issue arises when the time synchronization between the vCenter Server and the SRM appliance deviates by more than 30 seconds. Ensuring that the time sync between the vCenter Server and the SRM appliance is within 30 seconds is essential to prevent such errors.
• Additionally, this issue may also occur if NTP (Network Time Protocol) synchronization between the SRM and vCenter Server is not functioning correctly.

Resolution

 

• Move the DR vCenter VM and SRM to the Same ESXi Host: Place both the DR vCenter Server VM and the SRM appliance on the same ESXi host to minimize potential time synchronization discrepancies.

• Update NTP Settings on DR SRM: Configure the NTP settings on the DR SRM appliance to match the ESXi host's time settings. This ensures that the SRM appliance is synchronized with the host time.

• Adjust vCenter Time Settings: Update the time settings on the vCenter Server to match the ESXi host time. This alignment ensures consistent time synchronization across the infrastructure.

• Reconfigure SRM: After completing the above steps, reconfigure SRM to resolve any remaining synchronization issues and verify that the time sync problem between the vCenter Server and SRM is resolved.

Refer: Configure the Time Zone and Time Synchronization Settings for the Site Recovery Manager Appliance