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VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 | 05 OCT 2021 | Build 18710774 | Download

VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 Configuration Import/Export Tool | 05 OCT 2021 | Build 18712590 | Download

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

These release notes cover the following topics:

What's New
Localization
Product Documentation
Installation
Upgrading vSphere Replication
Operational Limits of vSphere Replication
Open Source Components
Caveats and Limitations
Known Issues

What's New

VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 adds compatibility with VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 3.
Support for changing the storage policy of replica disks.
Support for Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) with vSphere Replication. You can enable FIPS in the vSphere Replication appliance by following the steps in KB 84298.
Report the quiescing status of virtual machines in the UI.
Show replication target site name in the configure replication validation page.
vRealize Operations Management Pack for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5. For information about the management pack, see VMware vRealize Operations Management Pack for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 Release Notes.
vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 For information about the new workflows, see VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 Release Notes.

For interoperability with earlier or later releases of VMware vSphere, see the Compatibility Matrices for vSphere Replication 8.5.

For information about the features of vSphere 7.0 Update 3, see the vSphere 7.0 documentation.

Localization

VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 is available in the following languages:

English
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese

Product Documentation

In addition to the current release notes, you can use the documentation set for vSphere Replication 8.5 that includes the following deliverables.

vSphere Replication 8.5 Documentation Center
Compatibility Matrices for vSphere Replication 8.5

Installation

Download the vSphere Replication .iso image and mount it. You can deploy the vSphere Replication appliance by using the Deploy OVF wizard in the vSphere Web Client. Navigate to the \bin directory in the .iso image and use the corresponding OVF file:

vSphere_Replication_OVF10.ovf: Use this file to install all vSphere Replication components, including the vSphere Replication Management Server and a vSphere Replication Server.
vSphere_Replication_AddOn_OVF10.ovf: Use this file to install an optional additional vSphere Replication Server.

For more information on installation, see section Installing vSphere Replication in the vSphere Replication Documentation Center.

For vCenter Server to vCenter Server replications, the version of the vSphere Replication Management server on the source and the target site can be 8.4 or 8.5.

vSphere Replication 8.5 requires a supported vCenter Server version on both the source site and the target site. For more information, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.

Upgrading vSphere Replication

You use the ISO file and the VAMI to upgrade to vSphere Replication 8.3.x or 8.4.x to vSphere Replication 8.5.

You cannot upgrade vSphere Replication from version 6.5.1 to version 8.5 by using the official VMware Update Repository from the VAMI of the vSphere Replication appliance. See the compatibility matrices for further information on supported versions.

Important: Before you initiate an upgrade, verify that the vSphere Replication appliance has an OVF environment, or context. See Checking and Restoring the OVF Context of the vSphere Replication Appliance (2106709).

Verify that you read the Upgrade and General sections under Known Issues.

See Upgrade Additional vSphere Replication Servers and Upgrade the vSphere Replication Appliance for the procedures on upgrading to vSphere Replication 8.5.

Notes:

If you have ongoing Disaster Recovery to Cloud replications and you try to upgrade to vSphere Replication 8.5 through the VAMI, the upgrade will fail, to prevent you from losing these replications. To avoid the upgrade failure, unconfigure all Disaster Recovery to Cloud replications before the upgrade. To continue using cloud recovery, you can use VMware vCloud Availability for vCloud Director. For more information, see the VMware vCloud Availability product page.
When you use vSphere Replication with Site Recovery Manager, upgrade vSphere Replication on both of the protected and the recovery sites before you upgrade the Site Recovery Manager Server. After upgrading vSphere Replication, you must restart the Site Recovery Manager Server. For more information, see the VMware Site Recovery Manager Documentation.

Operational Limits of vSphere Replication

The operational limits of vSphere Replication 8.5 are documented in the VMware Knowledge Base. See Operational Limits for vSphere Replication 6.x and 8.x (KB 2102453).

Note: vSphere Replication requires additional configuration to support more than 500 replications per a vSphere Replication Management server. See Operational Limits for vSphere Replication 6.x and 8.х and Configuring Upgraded vSphere Replication Appliances to Support up to 3000 Replications.

Open Source Components

The copyright statements and licenses applicable to the open source software components distributed in vSphere Replication 8.5 are available at the vSphere Replication Open Source Disclosure page.

Caveats and Limitations

To ensure successful virtual machine replication, you must verify that your virtual infrastructure respects certain limits before you start the replication.

NEW From vSphere Replication 8.5.0.3, you can use vSphere Life Cycle Manager (vLCM) with a manual workaround. See the VMware vSphere Replication 8.5.0.3 Release Notes.
NEW vSphere Replication will stop working correctly if you run the vSphere Prevent Guest Operating System Processes from Sending Configuration Messages to the Host procedure on the vSphere Replication Appliance.
NEW vSphere Replication does not support single virtual machine protection with two replication technologies. If a virtual machine is protected with VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery, it cannot be protected with vSphere Replication.
vSphere Replication can replicate virtual machines with virtual NVMe. vSphere Replication supports NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) datastores as a source and a target of a replication. vSphere Replication supports virtual NVMe controllers only if both the source and the target ESXi hosts are version 7.0 Update 2 or later. For more information about using the NVMe technology with the VMware products, see VMware NVMe Concepts in the VMware vSphere 7.0 Documentation.
vSphere Replication 8.5 does not support vSphere 7.0 Update 2 if virtual machine encryption is switched on. To use virtual machine encryption with vSphere Replication 8.5, you must use vSphere 7.0 Update 2c or later.
vSphere Replication 8.5 does not provide support bundle management in the VRMS Appliance Management Interface. This includes lists with support bundles and deleting support bundles. To manage the support bundles through SSH, establish an SSH connection to the vSphere Replication Appliance.
You cannot configure the vSphere Replication appliance when the Platform Services Controller is installed with a custom port.
The 5 minute RPO scales to a maximum supported limit of 50 VMs on a provisional vVol datastore.
vSphere Replication does not support VSS quiescing on Virtual Volumes.
vSphere Replication cannot replicate virtual machines that share vmdk files.
vSphere Replication does not support vSphere APIs for IO Filtering on both the source and the target sites. You cannot replicate a virtual machine that is assigned a VM Storage Policy that contains IOFilters, nor can you assign such a policy to the replication target VM. Before configuring a virtual machine for replication, verify that the VM Storage Policy that is assigned to it does not contain IOFilters. Do not assign VM Storage policies with IOFilters to virtual machines that are already configured for replication.
Deploying more than one vSphere Replication appliance produces a warning during the initial configuration process in the VRMS Appliance Management Interface. This requires user confirmation to proceed with the new appliance. This situation does not occur when deploying more than one vSphere Replication servers.
Each vSphere Replication Management Server can manage a maximum of 3000 replicated virtual machines. See Configuring Upgraded vSphere Replication Appliances to Support up to 3000 Replications (KB 2102463) and Requirements to the Environment... (KB 2107869).
vSphere Replication supports a maximum disk size of 62TB. If you attempt to enable replication on a virtual machine with a disk larger than 62TB, the virtual machine will not perform any replication operation and will not power on.
vSphere Replication tracks larger blocks on disks over 2TB. Replication performance on a disk over 2TB might be different than replication performance on a disk under 2TB for the same workload depending on how much of the disk goes over the network for a particular set of changed blocks.
vSphere Replication does not support upgrading the VMware Tools package in the vSphere Replication appliance.
vSphere Replication supports replicating RDMs in Virtual Compatibility Mode. RDMs in Physical Compatibility Mode cannot be configured for replication.
vSphere Replication does not replicate virtual machine snapshot hierarchy at the target site.
You can configure virtual machines that are powered off for replication. However, actual replication traffic begins when the virtual machine is powered on.
When using Storage DRS at a replication site, ensure that you have homogeneous host and datastore connectivity to prevent Storage DRS from performing resource consuming cross-host moves (changing both the host and the datastore) of replica disks.
The 5 minute RPO requires the source host to be ESXi 6.5.
To use the network isolation feature, vSphere Replication requires the host to be ESXi 6.0 or later.
vSphere Replication does not support VMware vSphere® Trust Authority™.
vSphere Replication is not integrated with vSphere Life Cycle Manager (vLCM). You must not run vSphere Replication and vLCM in the same data center, because vLCM causes vSphere Replication to stop.
When using the TRIM/UNMAP commands to reclaim space, if the UNMAP command is used at the source site, the replication traffic sends the command as a large stream of zeroes, unless compression is used on the replication. The data is stored as zeroes at the target site and space on the replica disks is not reclaimed.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

Upgrade
General
Replications to vCenter Server

Upgrade

NEW You cannot upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance to version 8.5
When you try to upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance to version 8.5, the process fails without an error or warning. The problem is observed if your partition for logs (/opt/vmware/logs) is full.

Workaround: Clean up the log partition before you upgrade to vSphere Replication 8.5.
The vSphere Replication Management service does not start after the upgrade
After you upgrade vSphere Replication, the vSphere Replication Management (VRM) service appears as stopped in the VAMI, and the /opt/vmware/hms/logs/hms-configtool.log file in the virtual appliance contains java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused error messages.

This problem is observed if the upgrade procedure of the embedded DB schema fails because the vPostgreSQL service was not fully started.

Workaround:
1. In the virtual appliance console, log in as the root user.
2. Run the following command: $ /opt/vmware/hms/bin/hms-configtool -cmd upgrade -configfile /opt/vmware/hms/conf/hms-configuration.xml
  The DB schema upgrade starts.
3. Wait for the DB upgrade procedure to complete.
4. In the vSphere Replication VAMI, navigate to the Configuration tab, and complete the SSO registration of the appliance.
Missing vSphere Replication permissions after upgrading the vSphere Replication appliance, certificate or IP change
If you upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance, or if for some other reason the certificate or the IP address of the vSphere Replication appliance changes, the permissions that are assigned to the default VRM user roles are deleted.
This problem is observed every time the vSphere Replication extension is unregistered and registered with the vCenter Server extension manager.

Workaround: Clone the predefined VRM roles and create your custom roles before upgrading the vSphere Replication appliance, or changing its certificate or IP address. The permissions that are assigned to custom roles are not removed.
The vSphere Replication Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) becomes inaccessible after upgrade
After the upgrade, the vSphere Replication VAMI changes and you cannot access it in the same browser window that you used before the upgrade.

Workaround: Do one of the following.
- Change the browser that you use to open the VAMI.
- Close the entire browser and open a new browser window to connect to the VAMI.
- Clear the cache of your browser.
- Open an incognito tab in your browser.

General

NEW An unexpected error appears in the Summary tab if you have a second NIC, configured with a static route set
If you have a second NIC and if you configured a static route set for it, the VRMS Appliance Management Interface cannot obtain an IP address from the second NIC. This might result in the following unexpected error in the IP Address for Incoming Storage Traffic field, under the Summary tab:

The Storage Traffic IP address <IP_address> must match one of the NIC IP addresses

Workaround: The NIC is correctly configured and you can discard the error.
You can verify if the replication traffic uses the correct IP address by running the following command:
cat /etc/vmware/hbrsrv-nic.xml
NEW After upgrading vCenter Server, you might observe errors messages in the Site Recovery UI
When you open the Site Recovery UI after upgrading your vCenter Server to version 6.7 Update 3p or version 7.0 Update 3 P04, you might observe the following error message: "User is not logged in. Terminating method execution due to lack of privileges." The same error is observed in the dr.log and the HMS logs.

Workaround: None. Discard the error.
NEW The vSphere Replication Management Server (VRMS) configuration from the VRMS Appliance Management User Interface fails with an error
If you configure the vCenter Server with a custom HTTP port, different from port 80, the VRMS configuration from the VRMS Appliance Management User Interface fails with the following error:

Failed to register VRMS

Workaround: To discover a custom vCenter Server port and accommodate the VRMS configuration workflow to use this port, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/85918.
NEW A replicated VM becomes unresponsive or cannot serve network requests
During a vSphere Replication sync operation, the VM disk I/O blocks for the duration of the sync. The vSphere Replication filter driver fails the SCSI UNMAP commands during a sync operation, if these commands override the transfer of the current replica disk to the target site.

Workaround: Allow vSphere Replication to accommodate the UNMAP commands.
1. Establish an SSH connection to the source ESXi Server.
2. Run the following command:
esxcli system settings advanced set -o /HBR/DemandlogFailCollidingUnmap -i 0

The command takes immediate effect and you don't need to perform a system reboot.
NEW Reprotect fails with an error
When you are replicating virtual machines at a large scale, reprotect might fail with the following error: "Unable to reverse replication for the virtual machine A generic error occurred in the vSphere Replication Management Server "java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out"

Workaround:
1. Navigate to the /opt/vmware/hms/conf/hms-configuration.xml file.
2. Increase the value of hms-default-vlsi-client-timeout to 15 minutes on both sites.
3. Restart the HMS services.
NEWThe replication goes into Error state when you both remove and add disks to the source VM.
Auto include new disks option is enabled. If you edit the settings of the VM and both remove one of the disks and add а new disk in a single task, the replication might go into Error state.

Workaround 1: Reconfigure the replication manually in the Site Recovery UI.

Workaround 2: When you modify the VM, add and remove new disks with two separated tasks
NEW Automatic replication does not start when a disk is replaced on the same SCSI device
Auto replication new disks is enabled. When in a single step you both remove and add protected disk on the same SCSI device, the replication goes into an Error state:

The set of disks on the vSphere Replication Server does not match the source set for replication '<vm name>'.

Workaround 1: Replace disk with two separated configuration operations.

Workaround 2: If you replaced the disk on the SCSI device with a single configuration operation, reconfigure the replication.
NEW When you modify the VM disks configuration, the replication goes into an Error state
When a VM is part of an ongoing replication, and you modify the VM storage configuration (add, delete, or resize disks), this action starts a replication reconfiguration task. If another reconfiguration operation is already in progress on this replication, the replication might fall into an Error state with an error. For example, " Invalid configuration spec. Some disks are not specified for replication, nor excluded." error.

Workaround: Manually reconfigure the replication.
Reprotect operation fails
If you configure a replication with enabled quiescing feature and the ESXi host on the target site is version 7.0 or 7.0 Update 1, the reprotect operation fails.

Workaround: Disable the optimized reprotect feature.
1. Establish an SSH connection to the vSphere Replication Appliance.
2. Run the following command: /opt/vmware/hms/bin/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property reprotect-optimization-enabled=false
3. Restart the HMS service.
This issue is resolved in ESXi version 7.0 Update 2.
If you try to run a sync operation after disk resizing, the operation fails.
If you perform disk resizing, depending on the size of the disk, the operation might take up to a few hours. When you try to run a sync operation in the meantime, the operation fails, even if the replication is in OK state.

Workaround: Wait for the disk resizing operation to complete. You can verify the completion by checking the/var/log/vmware/hbrsrv.log log file, where you should be able to see this entry:

Resizing disk <replicated disk ID>
The recovery of a replication of a VM, encrypted with vSphere Native Key Provider, fails
If you remove from the cluster, which is configured with Native Key Provider, all hosts to which the target datastore is attached, the existing replications remain in OK state. However, if you try to perform а recovery, the recovery fails and the replication goes into Error state.

Workaround: Make the datastore accessible in the cluster again. If you did not attempted recovery and the replication is still in OK state, reconfigure the replication and change the target datastore to a datastore, which is accessible in the cluster.
Newly added virtual disk is not replicated upon reprotect operation
If you perform recovery and add a new disk to the recovered VM, the new disk is not replicated upon reprotect operation. The new disk is not automatically replicated if the initial replication was configured to automatically replicate new disks either.

Workaround: Manually include the new disk to the replication.
Generating a support bundle fails
If the vSphere Replication Appliance is not configured and you try to generate a support bundle, the process fails.

Workaround: Manually generate the support bundles for the vSphere Replication Appliance and the embedded vSphere Replication Server. The generated files are /tmp/hms-bundle.tar.gz and /tmp/embedded-hbr-bundle.tgz.
1. Establish an SSH connection to the vSphere Replication Appliance.
2. Run the following commands:
  /bin/tar --force-local --ignore-failed-read -chvpf /tmp/hms-bundle.tar /opt/vmware/hms/logs /opt/vmware/var/log /opt/vmware/support/logs/dr /opt/vmware/support/logs/drconfigui /opt/vmware/support/logs/envoy /usr/bin/gzip --no-name --quiet --stdout /tmp/hms-bundle.tar > /tmp/hms-bundle.tar.gz /urs/bin/rm /tmp/hms-bundle.tar /usr/bin/sudo -u root /usr/bin/hbrsrv-support-bundle.sh -f /tmp/embeded-hbr-bundle.tgz
3. Navigate to the VMware VRMS Appliance Management for the respective embedded vSphere Replication Server and generate the support bundle.
Recovery operation does not progress
If, within a short period of time, you exclude a virtual disk with a vVOL target datastore from the replication, and then incluce it again, this might affect a subsequent recovery operation. If you attempt to perform the recovery, it might not progress.

Workaround 1

If you already started the recovery operation:
1. Remove the replication, retaining the replica disks.
2. Configure the replication again, using seeds.
3. Perform recovery.
Workaround 2:

If you have not yet started the recovery operation:
1. Exclude the disk with a vVOL target datastore.
2. Sync the replication.
3. Include the disk again.
4. Perform recovery.
Replication sync does not progress
If, within a short period of time, you exclude a virtual disk with a vVOL target datastore from the replication, and then incluce it again, this might affect a subsequent replication sync operation. If you attempt to perform a replication sync, it might not progress.

Workaround:
1. Exclude the disk with a vVOL target datastore.
2. Sync the replication.
3. Include the disk again.
You cannot use network encryption for vSphere Replication
When you try to configure network encryption for a replication, the option in the Configure replication wizard is inactive. If you are using ESX version 6.5, the hbr-agent.vib is not automatically installed on the ESX 6.5 hosts and you cannot configure network encryption for these replications.

Workaround:
1. Establish an SSH connection to the vSphere Replication Appliance.
2. Run the following command: /opt/vmware/hms/bin/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property hms-auto-install-hbragent-vib=false
3. Restart the HMS service.
4. Download and install the hbr-agent.vib for vSphere Replication 8.5 and install it on the ESX 6.5 hosts. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2110304.
When you attempt to configure IPv6 through the VMware VRMS Appliance Management you receive an invalid property - dns error
When you attempt to configure IPv6 through the VMware VRMS Appliance Management and select the 'Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through router advertisement' option with auto assigned dns, the following error occurs invalid property - dns.

Workaround: SSH to the vSphere Replication Appliance host machine and run $netmgr ip6_address --set --interface --dhcp 0 --autoconf 1. To receive an IP address through DHCP run $netmgr ip6_address --set --interface --dhcp 1 --autoconf 1 instead.
You cannot reconfigure the IPv6 settings through the VMware VRMS Appliance Management
If you have configured the IPv6 network with the 'Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through router advertisement' or 'Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through DHCP' option, you are unable to reconfigure the IPv6 settings with only 'Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through DHCP'. Either both options must be selected or none of them.

Workaround: SSH to the vSphere Replication Appliance host machine and run $netmgr ip6_address --set --interface --dhcp 0 --autoconf 1.
To receive an IP address through DHCP run $netmgr ip6_address --set --interface --dhcp 1 --autoconf 1 instead.
Reconfiguring a replication fails after removing and then adding the same disk to a different Virtual Device Node on the source VM

If you remove a virtual disk and add a new one with the same VMDK file, and then you try to perform a manual or an automatic (if you enabled the Auto include new disks option) reconfiguration of the replication, the process fails with the following error:

Cannot reconfigure replication group '<VM_ID>' (managed object ID: 'GID-<group-ID>'). Details: 'Duplicate key (hms.Disk) { dynamicType = null, dynamicProperty = null, deviceKey = <DEVICE_KEY>, destination = (hms.ExtendedDatastorePath) { dynamicType = null, dynamicProperty = null, datastore = MoRef: type = Datastore, value = <DATASTORE>, serverGuid = null, path = <PATH>, fileName = <FILENAME>, dsCluster = null }, storageProfileId = null, useOfflineCopy = false, virtualDiskType = thin, skipDiskUuidValidation = true, replicationDiskId = null, contentId = null, capacityInKb = <CAPACITY> }'. ThrowableProxy.cause The operation is not allowed in the current state.

Workaround
1. Stop the replication and preserve the replica disks.
2. Configure the replication again by using the disks as seeds.
Configuring replication fails after switching from vSphere Trust Authority to KMS as an encryption mechanism
If you are using vSphere Trust Authority as an encryption mechanism, but switch back to the old encryption mechanism using KMS servers, and then try to configure a replication, the process might fail. The problem is observed, because the encryption keys might not be properly distributed to the target hosts, after switching the encryption mechanisms.

Workaround: Restart the HMS service.
Reconfiguring replication at the remote site fails with an error
When you attempt to reconfigure replication at the remote site, the process fails with the following error:

Failed to reconfigure replication because of java.lang.NullPointerException at com.vmware.hms.replication.SecondaryGroupImpl.reconfigureVirtualMachine(SecondaryGroupImpl.java:3163) at com.vmware.hms.replication.SecondaryGroupImpl.scheduledReconfigure(SecondaryGroupImpl.java:2840) at com.vmware.hms.replication.SecondaryGroupImpl.access$3(SecondaryGroupImpl.java:2812) at com.vmware.hms.replication.SecondaryGroupImpl$2.go(SecondaryGroupImpl.java:2780) at com.vmware.hms.task.TaskRunnable.run(TaskRunnable.java:71) at com.vmware.hms.HmsTaskManager$2.run(HmsTaskManager.java:519) at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$RunnableWithDiagnosticContext.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:133) at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$2.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:100)

This problem only happens with vSphere Replication appliance which is upgraded from an older versions than 8.1.0, for example from 6.5 and earlier.

Workaround:
1. Establish an SSH connection to the HMS appliance.
2. Navigate to /opt/vmware/hms/bin/.
3. To check if the issue is coming from a particular replication, run this command:
  ./embedded_db_connect.sh --no-align --tuples-only -c "select diskentity.isnativesnapshotsupported, secondaryvirtualmachineentity.name from diskentity, secondaryvirtualmachineentity where secondaryvirtualmachineentity.movalue = diskentity.vm_movalue;"
4. If running the command from step 3 gives any results, also run the following command:
  ./embedded_db_connect.sh --no-align --tuples-only -c "update diskentity set isnativesnapshotsupported = false from secondaryvirtualmachineentity where secondaryvirtualmachineentity.movalue = diskentity.vm_movalue;"
5. Restart the HMS service by using thesystemctl restart hms command.
Test recovery fails with an error
If you configure a replication to a VMFS datastore and then reconfigure any disk of this group to be replicated to a vSAN datastore (while the VM home is still configured to a VMFS datastore), when you try to perform a test recovery, it fails with the following error:

Cannot create a test bubble image for group '<group-ID>' on vSphere Replication Server...

Workaround 1: Reconfigure all replica disks back to using a VMFS datastore.

Workaround 2: Reconfigure the VM home to be replicated to a vSAN datastore.
Replications with network encryption appear in Not Active state
By default, when you power on the vSphere Replication appliance, a vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) is installed on all supported ESXi hosts in the vCenter Server inventory where the appliance is deployed. The automatic installation of the VIB file might fail due to different reasons.

Workaround:

Install the vSphere Replication VIB file on each ESXi instance that hosts replication source VM.

1. Temporarily disable the firewall on the ESXi host.
2. Establish an SSH connection to the ESXi Server.
3. Run the following command:
$ esxcli software vib install -v https://VR_APPLIANCE_IP:8043/vib/vmware-hbr-agent.vib
4. Enable the firewall on the ESXi host.
You cannot configure new replications with network encryption
By default, when you power on the vSphere Replication appliance, a vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) is installed on all supported ESXi hosts in the vCenter Server inventory where the appliance is deployed. The automatic installation of the VIB file might fail due to different reasons.

Workaround:

Install the vSphere Replication VIB file on each ESXi instance that hosts replication source VM.

1. Temporarily disable the firewall on the ESXi host.
2. Establish an SSH connection to the ESXi Server.
3. Run the following command:
$ esxcli software vib install -v https://VR_APPLIANCE_IP:8043/vib/vmware-hbr-agent.vib
4. Enable the firewall on the ESXi host.
Importing or exporting replication configuration data with the vSphere Replication Import/Export tool fails with an error
If you are using vSphere 6.5 with a vVol datastore and you try to import or export replication configuration data, the operation will fail with the following error:

Unable to configure replication: A general system error occurred: Invalid fault

Workaround 1: Use a different type of datastore, such as vSAN, VMFS or NFS.
Workaround 2: Upgrade to vSphere 6.7 or vSphere 7.0.
If the source VM for a replication runs on ESXi 6.7 or 6.7 Update 1, an initial or full synchronization might stop progress before completion
The synchronization of replications for which the source VM is running on ESXi 6.7 or 6.7 Update 1 remains in progress, but the checksum bytes value in the replication details information does not progress. Operations such as powering off, taking a snapshot, reverting to a snapshot, and migrations fail with a timeout or Task in progress errors.

Workaround:

1. In the ESXi Advanced settings, disable the checksum for vSphere Replication by setting HBR.ChecksumUseChecksumInfo = 0.

2. Migrate all VMs and power off the ones that cannot be migrated on the ESXi host.

3. Place the host in maintenance mode.

4. Reboot the ESXi host.

With these steps, you disable the checksum part of the sync process and all of the allocated blocks are sent to the remote site, regardless of whether they are different or not. Also, you cannot use seeds.
If the source VM for a replication runs on ESXi 6.7 or 6.7 Update 1, replication synchronization seems to be in progress, but the replication instance never completes successfully
In ESXi 6.7 and 6.7 Update 1, it is possible that more demand log chunks be scheduled for parallel transfer than the actual number that can be transmitted. If you are replicating a VM that is running on such a host and this coincides with a slow target host or temporary network errors, this might result in replication failure withDiskQueue is full errors.

Workaround:
1. Move all the VMs to another ESXi host.
2. Edit the value of the HBR.DemandlogTransferMaxNetwork ESXi Advanced setting to 63 instead of the default 64.
3. Place the ESXi host in maintenance mode.
4. Reboot the ESXi host.
When you right-click on a replicated VM and select Reconfigure Replication in the vSphere UI, the pop-up window for the Site Recovey UI is blocked without notification in Mozilla Firefox browser
By default the Site Recovey UI opens in a new tab. When you right-click on a replicated VM and select Reconfigure Replication in the vSphere UI, the pop-up window for the Site Recovey UI is blocked without notification in Mozilla Firefox browser.

Workaround: From the Options menu in Mozilla Firefox, select the Content tab and add the URL of the vCenter Server to the Pop-ups exception list.
The Site Recovery UI becomes unusable showing a constant stream of 403 - OK error message
The Site Recovery UI shows no data and an error 403 - OK.

Workaround:

1. Log out from Site Recovery UI and log in again.

2. Disable the browser's 'Restore last session' checkbox. For Chrome disable the 'Continue where you left off' option.
Configuring a replication that uses seeds on a vVol target datastore succeeds, but the replication is in Error state
If you configure a replication to use as a seed a VM that has snapshots, the configure operation succeeds, but the replication goes into the Error state at the end of the Initial Full Sync. An issue with a similar error description appears:
"A replication error occurred at the vSphere Replication Server for replication 'vmname'. Details: 'Error for (datastoreUUID: "vvol:9148a6192d0349de-94149524b5f52bc4"), (diskId: "RDID-fd3ed4de-2356-43c7-a0e2-7bc07a7da012"), (hostId: "host-33"), (pathname: "vmname/vmname.vmdk"), (flags: retriable): Class: NFC Code: 10; NFC error: NFC_DISKLIB_ERROR (Input/output error); Set error flag: retriable; Can't write (multiEx) to remote disk; Can't write (multi) to remote disk'."

Workaround: Delete the snapshots from the seed VM.
During full synchronization vSphere Replication fails with error: A replication error occurred at the vSphere Replication Server

During full synchronization vSphere Replication might fail with the following error.
A replication error occurred at the vSphere Replication Server for replication <group_name>. Details: 'Error for (datastoreUUID: "..."), (diskId: "..."), (hostId: "..."), (pathname: "..."), (flags: retriable, pick-new-host, nfc-no-memory): Class: NFC Code: 5; NFC error: NFC_NO_MEMORY; Set error flag: nfc-no-memory; Code set to: Host unable to process request.; Set error flag: retriable; Set error flag: pick-new-host; Can't write (single) to remote disk'.

Usually, this error is transient and the operation succeeds after some time.
Replacing the SSL certificate of vCenter Server causes certificate validation errors in vSphere Replication
If you replace the SSL certificate on the vCenter Server system, a connection error occurs when vSphere Replication attempts to connect to vCenter Server.

Workaround: For information about how to update vCenter Server certificates and allow solutions such as vSphere Replication to continue to function, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2109074.
Data synchronization fails and the log file of the source vSphere Replication Management Server contains error DeltaAbortedException
If your environment experiences connectivity issues during data synchronization, you might observe the following problems.
- Replication group synchronizations fail and the hms<n>.log file in the vSphere Replication Management server at the source site contains the following error message:
  DeltaAbortedException.
- In Site Recovery Manager, replication group synchronizations fail with the following error message:
  VR synchronization failed for VRM group <group_name>. A generic error occurred in the vSphere Replication Management Server. Exception details: 'com.vmware.hms.replication.sync.DeltaAbortedException' .
Workaround: Resolve the connectivity issues in your environment before you proceed.
Failover with "Sync latest changes" might fail with SocketTimeoutException when multiple replications are recovered concurrently and there is a huge accumulated delta since the latest synchronization
The vSphere Replication Management server might not receive due responses through the vCenter reverse proxy when there is heavy replication traffic at the same network. Some replication management or monitoring operations might fail with the following error message:
'com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.exception.ConnectionException: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out'

Workaround: Configure network traffic isolation for vSphere Replication traffic, so that the management communication between vCenter and the vSphere Replication Management server is not affected by the heavy replication traffic. See Isolating the Network Traffic of vSphere Replication.
Virtual machines that are located in the target folder are overwritten during recovery
If the target folder contains a registered virtual machine with the same name as the replicated virtual machine, the registered virtual machine is overwritten during the recovery. When you start the Recovery wizard, vSphere Replication checks the target folder and displays a dialog box for you to confirm the overwrite operation. On rare occasions, after the target check is complete, and while the wizard is still open, a virtual machine might be registered to the target folder. On these occasions, the virtual machine that was copied to the target folder will be overwritten without further notice.

Workaround: None.
Replications appear in Not Active (RPO violation) status after changing the IP address of the vSphere Replication server at the target site
If the IP address of the vSphere Replication server at the target site changes, the status of all replications to this site turns to Not Active (RPO violation). This problem is observed because replications on the source site are not reconfigured automatically when the IP address changes.

Workaround: Reconfigure all replications, so that the source hosts use the new IP address of the target vSphere Replication server.
Transient Error state during the initial full synchronization
During the initial synchronization, you might observe that the state of the synchronization changes temporarily to Error and back to normal multiple times. The error state might indicate resource deficiency at the target site. If the IO workload caused by the sync operation is higher than the load that target hosts can handle, the state of the replication will turn to Error. When the IO workload decreases, the error disappears.

Workaround: Reduce the value of the host configuration option called HBR.TransferMaxContExtents on each ESXi host where replication source VMs are running. The default value is 8, and a lower value decreases the size of data blocks that are sent during one sync update, but increases the duration of the initial full sync. After the initial full sync, change the value back to its default (8) to achieve maximum RPO performance. If transient errors continue to appear during delta synchronizations, it might mean that a lot of changed blocks are transferred during each delta, and the hosts at the target site cannot accommodate the incurred IO workload. In such cases, keep the value of the HBR.TransferMaxContExtents configuration option low.
Alternatively, you can add more hosts to the secondary site.
Users that are assigned the VRM administrator or VRM virtual machine replication role cannot access the Configure Replication wizard
The Configure Replication wizard is not launched if a user that is assigned the predefined VRM administrator or VRM virtual machine replication role logs in the Site Recovery user interface and attempts to configure a replication.

Workaround: Clone the default role to add the Profile-driven storage -> Profile-driven storage view privilege to it, and assign the cloned role to the user.
The option to enable quiescing is disabled in Configure Replication wizard for a powered off replication source VM, though the guest OS supports quiescing
For both Linux and Windows sources, the Enable Quiescing option is enabled based on the information about the guest OS. If a virtual machine has never been powered on, ESXi hosts always report no support for quiescing, because the guest OS information is not available.

Workaround: Verify that replication source VMs have been powered on at least once before you configure replications.
vSphere Replication service is inaccessible after vCenter Server certificate changes
If the vCenter Server certificate changes, vSphere Replication becomes inaccessible.

Workaround: See vSphere Replication is Inaccessible After Changing vCenter Server Certificate.
vSphere Replication Management Server (VRMS) might leak a partially recovered virtual machine in the target vCenter Server after a failed recovery
In rare cases VRMS might stop during recovery immediately after registering the recovered virtual machine in the target vCenter Server. The last recovery error in the replication details panel says VRM Server was unable to complete the operation. When VRMS restarts, it cleans up the files for the partially recovered virtual machine. In some cases, it fails to unregister the virtual machine from the target vCenter Server. Subsequent recovery attempts show an error in the recovery wizard that the selected virtual machine folder already contains an entity with the same name.

Workaround: Manually remove the virtual machine from the target vCenter Server, but keep its disks as they point to the replica placeholder files.
A virtual machine recovered in vSphere Replication does not power on in vCenter Server
When you use vSphere Replication to run a recovery on a virtual machine, it fails, and the status of the replication is not 'Recovered'. The virtual machine is registered in the vCenter inventory, but when you try to power it on, it fails with error: File [datastorename] path/vmname.vmx was not found. The virtual machine registration as part of the vSphere Replication recovery workflow can succeed in vCenter Server, but the response might not reach the vSphere Replication Management Server due to a transient network error. vSphere Replication reverts the replication image and reports a failed recovery task due to virtual machine registration error. If you initiate another recovery, it fails with a message that a virtual machine with the same name is already registered in vCenter Server.

Workaround: Remove the partially recovered virtual machine from the vCenter Server inventory. Do not delete the files from disk. Try the recovery again.
During replication of multiple virtual machines, a vSphere Replication server might enter a state where it does not accept any further VRMS connections but continues to replicate virtual machines
Workaround: Reboot the vSphere Replication server.
vSphere Replication operations fail with a Not Authenticated error
If you start an operation on one site, for example configuring vSphere Replication on a virtual machine, and then restart vCenter Server and the vSphere Replication appliance on the other site, vSphere Replication operations can fail with the error VRM Server generic error. Please check the documentation for any troubleshooting information. The detailed exception is: 'com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.NotAuthenticated'. This problem is caused by the fact that the vSphere Replication server retains in its cache the connection session from before you restarted vCenter Server and the vSphere Replication appliance.

Workaround: Clear the vSphere Replication connection cache by logging out of the vSphere Web Client and logging back in again.
Operation in vSphere Replication Management Server fails with error "... UnmarshallException"
When the vSphere Replication Management Server experiences high load or transient network errors, operations can fail with UnmarshallException due to errors in the communication layer.

Workaround: Try the failed operation again.
The VAMI might not respond when you install an update
When you upgrade vSphere Replication, a status message 'Installing Updates' might not disappear even after the updates install successfully because the VAMI is not responding.

Workaround: Refresh the VAMI UI in the browser or open it in a new tab.
vSphere Replication operations fail when there is heavy replication traffic
vSphere Replication operations might fail with error java.net.UnknownHostException. These errors occur because DNS requests are dropped due to network congestion.

Workaround: Configure your network to ensure that management traffic is not dropped, by configuring traffic shaping, quality of service, or DNS on the vSphere Replication appliance. One possible solution is to modify the network address caching policy for the vSphere Replication appliance.
1. Log into the vSphere Replication appliance as root.
2. Open the file /usr/java/jre-vmware/lib/security/java.security in an editor.
3. Uncomment the line networkaddress.cache.ttl and set its value to at least 86400 seconds (24 hours) or to the longest time that is required for an initial full sync to complete.
4. Save the file and reboot the vSphere Replication appliance.
5. Repeat the procedure for all remaining vSphere Replication appliances.

Replications to vCenter Server

NEW Configuring a replication to a newly registered VM fails with an error
If after performing a successful failover in optimized reprotect mode, you remove the recovered VM and then re-register it, when you attempt to configure a replication for this VM, the process fails with the following error:

VM '<VM_ID>' was recovered in optimized reprotect mode in another replication group. To configure new replication for the VM, you must first remove the existing recovered replication.

Workaround: Disable vSphere Replication on this VM. See https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2106946.
You cannot encrypt an unencrypted source VM in an active replication
If you try to encrypt an unencrypted virtual machine in an active replication configuration, the encryption fails.

Workaround: Recover the unencrypted virtual machine and configure a new replication with encrypted seed disks.

1.  Recover the VM on the remote site, but do not power the VM on.
2.  Remove the replication of the source VM.
3.  Edit the settings of the VM on the target site and change the VM storage policy to VM Encryption Policy.
4.  Edit the settings of the source VM on the source site and change the VM storage policy to VM Encryption Policy.
5. Unregister the recovered virtual machine on the target site, but do not delete the disks.
6.  Configure a new replication and select the disks of the recovered VM on the target site as seeds.
Reconfiguring a replication fails if a Storage DRS cluster is selected as destination for the replication
If you try to reconfigure a replication and move the replication to a datastore part from a Storage DRS cluster, the reconfiguration fails.

Workaround: Remove the replication and configure a new replication to the desired datastore.
You cannot use custom defined users and roles with vSphere Replication
You are unable to configure a replication with a custom user, even if that custom user is assigned all required VRM privileges on both sites. The error message Permission to perform this operation is denied appears on the Target Location page in Configure Replication wizards.

Workaround: None. All vSphere Replication operations must be performed with the SSO administrator user on both sites.
A recovered virtual machine with multiple point-in-time instances enabled can lose the attached disks to the latest snapshot when you revert to a previous snapshot and then revert to latest snapshot again
When you recover a virtual machine for which you enabled point-in-time instances and attach a disk for unresolved disks, if any, the disks attach to the latest snapshot. If you revert to a previous snapshot and then revert to the latest one, the attached disks are not available.

Workaround: Edit settings of the virtual machine and add the required disks as existing hard disks.

Cannot configure a virtual machine with physical mode RDM disk even if the disk is excluded from replication

If you configure a replication for a virtual machine with physical mode, you might see the following error:

VRM Server generic error. Check the documentation for any troubleshooting information.  The detailed exception is: HMS can not set disk UUID for disks of VM : MoRef:  type = VirtualMachine, value =                                  , serverGuid = null'.

Workaround: None.

Recovering a virtual machine with vSphere Replication 8.5 fails to power on the recovered virtual machine
If a replicated virtual machine is attached to a distributed virtual switch and you attempt to perform a recovery in an automated DRS cluster, the recovery operation succeeds but the resulting virtual machine cannot be powered on.

Workaround: Edit the recovered virtual machine settings to attach it to the correct network.
Registering additional vSphere Replication servers takes a long time
If vCenter Server manages several hundred ESXi Server hosts, registering an additional vSphere Replication server with the vSphere Replication appliance can take several minutes.
This is because the vSphere Replication server must register with each ESXi Server host.

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Source: https://docs.vmware.com/en/vSphere-Replication/8.5/rn/vsphere-replication-85-release-notes.html

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