LVM.enableResignature=1 Remains Set After a Site Recovery Manager Test Recovery

Site Recovery Manager does not support ESXi environments in which the LVM.enableResignature flag is set to 0.

Problem

During a test recovery or an actual recovery, Site Recovery Manager sets LVM.enableResignature to 1 if the flag is not already set. Site Recovery Manager sets this flag to resignature snapshot volumes and mounts them on ESXi hosts for recovery. After the operation finishes, the flag remains set to 1.

Cause

Site Recovery Manager does not check how snapshot volumes are presented to ESXi hosts. Site Recovery Manager does not support setting the LVM.enableResignature flag to 0. If you set the flag from 1 to 0, a virtual machine outage might occur each time you perform a test recovery or an actual recovery occurs.

Setting the LVM.enableResignature flag on ESXi hosts is a host-wide operation. When this flag is set to 1, during the host rescan or the next host reboot, all snapshot LUNs that are visible to the ESXi host, and that can be resignatured, are resignatured.

If snapshot volumes unrelated to Site Recovery Manager are forcefully mounted to ESXi hosts on the recovery site, these LUNs are resignatured as part of a host rescan during a test recovery or an actual recovery process. As a result, all the virtual machines in these volumes become inaccessible.

Solution

To prevent outages, make sure that no snapshot LUNs that are unrelated to Site Recovery Manager, and that are forcefully mounted, are visible to ESXi hosts on the recovery site.