Configuring vSphere Replication fails with the error: Target disk UUID validation failed

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Symptoms

  • Cannot configure vSphere Replication
  • Configuring vSphere Replication fails with the error
  • You see the error:

    Target disk UUID validation failed

Purpose

This article provides steps to resolve the issue when configuring vSphere Replication fails with the Target disk UUID validation failed error.

Cause

vSphere Replication allows you to copy your virtual disk files to the remote datacenter and point those as replication seeds during configuring replication to avoid network bandwidth consumption. vSphere Replication compares the differences and replicates only the changed blocks. This error occurs if the virtual machines disk UUID is different than the source disk.
 
This issue occurs while performing common procedures that normally cause this issue:
  • Cloning the source virtual machine from vCenter Server and then transferring the files to the DR site
  • If the copied virtual machine was registered manually and powered on with virtual machine answer I copied it
  • Restore the vmdk to DR site using a backup tool and try to initiate replication using existing seeds same error

Resolution

To resolve this issue, use a text editor to correct the VMFS UUID in the virtual machines disk file(s) on the DR site.

For each disk in the virtual machine:
  1. Connect to the ESX/ESXi host housing the virtual machine in question on the Protected site using an SSH session. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x (2004746).
  2. Run this command on the Protected site host to enter the VM directory:

    cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/virtual_machine_name
  3. Run this command and note the source disk VMFS UUID from the vmdk:

    less vmname.vmdk


    For example, you see a file similar to:

    ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 96 f2 f9 ba ae-1a 90 66 a3 d6 89 16 c4"

  4. Connect to the ESX/ESXi host housing the virtual machine in question on the DR site using an SSH session. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x (2004746).
  5. Run this command in the same virtual machine directory in the DR Site:

    cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/virtual_machine_name
  6. Take a backup copy of the virtual_machine_name.vmdk file using the cp command to protect against inadvertent file corruption.
  7. Use text editor to overwrite the ddb.uuid field value in the virtual_machine_name.vmdk file with the VMFS UUID noted in Step #3. You can find the esxcli storage vmfs extent list command in Identifying disks when working with VMware ESX/ESXi (1014953) useful for checking the VMFS UUID on the protected site is equal to the vmfs UUID on the DR site.

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