VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.5 | 05 OCT 2021 | Build 18726139 | Download VMware vRealize Orchestrator Appliance 8.5 | 19 AUG 2021 | Build 18474196 | Release Notes  VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 | 05 OCT 2021 | Build 18710774 | Release Notes Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

• What's New
• Introduction to the VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.5
• Installation
• Featured Workflows
• Known Issues

What's New

• The VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for vSphere Replication 8.5 provides the following new features:
  • Support for VMware vRealize Orchestrator 8.5.
  • Support for FIPS.
• The VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for vSphere Replication 8.5 release introduces the following new workflows:
  • Workflow to check if there is an existing test bubble image for a replication
  • Workflow to monitor RPO violation per VM
  • Workflow to get a replication recovery solution
  • Workflow to configure the vSphere Replication  plug-in connection settings

Introduction to the VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.5

The VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication allows VMware administrators to simplify the management of their vSphere Replication infrastructure by leveraging the robust workflow automation platform of vRealize Orchestrator. The vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication extends automation capabilities for certain vSphere Replication operations by including them in vRealize Orchestrator workflows.
The plug-in also delivers pre-built out-of-the-box building blocks and complete workflows that cover certain existing vSphere Replication actions.

The vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.5 release runs with the latest version of VMware vRealize Orchestrator (8.5).

You can download the vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication 8.5 from the download page.

For information about creating workflows by using vRealize Orchestrator, see the vRealize Orchestrator documentation.

For more information on the supported workflows, see the Featured Workflows section.

For more information on the compatibility between the VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication and vRealize Orchestrator Appliance, see the compatibility matrix. 

Installation

The Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication software requires vRealize Orchestrator 8.5, and vSphere Replication 8.5. For information on installing vRealize Orchestrator, see the vRealize Orchestrator documentation. For information on installing vSphere Replication 8.5, see Installing and Setting Up vSphere Replication in the VMware vSphere Replication documentation.

The Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication software is distributed as Orchestrator application file. Install and configure the plug-in by using the Orchestrator configuration interface.

After you install the Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication, the plug-in automatically discovers the vSphere Replication instances on all vCenter Servers that are currently registered.

After you install the Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication, you find the vSphere Replication workflows in the vRealize Orchestrator UI:

1. Go to Library > Workflows
2. Search for the workflow by name or switch to tree view from the top right icon. In tree view you can find the workflows under Library > vSphere Replication folder.

Before you can run vSphere Replication workflows, which interact with remote sites, you must register the remote site, by running the corresponding workflow from Library > vSphere Replication > Remote Site Management > Register VC Site.

Note: The vRealize Orchestrator user, which is used to register the vCenter Server sites in vRealize Orchestrator must have the privilege Sessions.ValidateSession and the VRM Administrator role (or all the privileges of the VRM Administor role). The user must have the privileges on all vCenter Server instances in the vRealize Orchestrator inventory, otherwise the vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for vSphere Replication does not populate the vSphere Replication inventory objects in vRealize Orchestrator.

Even if you want to configure replication to the same site, you must register it by selecting self pair in the Site field. Then, you must log in to the remote site by running the Login to VC Site​ workflow. You must run this workflow only once per vRealize Orchestrator user.

Note: vRealize Orchestrator communicates with the vSphere Replication appliance over port 8043.

Featured Workflows

The vRealize Orchestrator plug-in provides out-of-the-box workflows to help customers automate vSphere Replication operations. Below are some of the implemented workflows.

• Remote Site Management workflows:
  1. Log in to a vCenter Server site
• Configure Replication workflows:
  1. Reconfigure Replication
• Pause Replication workflows
• Resume Replication workflows
• Stop Replication workflows
• Replication Details Workflows
  1. Check Replication Status
  2. Get Replication Configuration
  3. Get Replication List

 

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

• General
• Known Issues from Previous Releases

General

• You cannot select the same options twice for Disk format per disk, Storage profile per disk or Target datastore per disk, when running the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration option enabled

  When you run the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration option enabled and you try to select options for the Disk format per disk, Storage profile per disk and Target datastore per disk arrays, you cannot select the same options twice and you get an error message.

  Workaround 1: Use the Configure Replication or Reconfigure Replication workflows with the Per disk configuration options disabled.

  Workaround 2: Use the vRealize Orchestrator scripting objects.

• You cannot configure a virtual machine for replication

  vRealize Orchestrator does not display the VC:VirtualMachine inventory browser for VMware Cloud on AWS (SDDC Version 1.11) or vCenter Server 7.0.1. As a result, you are not able to configure a virtual machine for replication using the vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for vSphere Replication.

  Workaround: Upgrade your vCenter Server plug-in to version 6.5.0-16613969 (built 2020-07-21). For more information, see https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-32872.

• Configure Replication workflow and/or Reconfigure Replication workflow fail with an error

  If you are running vRealize Orchestrator 8.1 and you try to run the Configure Replication workflow and/or the Reconfigure Replication workflow, it fails with the following error:
  problem invoking action com.vmware.o11n.forms/evalOGNL;

  Workaround: Upgrade to vRealize Orchestrator 8.1.0 Patch 1.

• Protect Multiple VMs or Reconfigure Replication workflows contain empty drop-down menus.

  When you try to execute the Protect Multiple VMs or Reconfigure Replication workflows on vRealize Orchestrator 8.0.1, some of the drop down menus might be empty.

  Workaround: In the empty field, start typing part of the name of the item that you are looking for. 

• Replication values do not load in Reconfigure Replication workflow

  When you try to run the Reconfigure Replication workflow in vRealize Orchestrator 8.0, the replication values do not load.

  Workaround: Upgrade vRealize Orchestrator 8.0 to vRealize Orchestrator 8.0.1.

• Reconfigure Replication workflow fails with an error

  When you try to run the Reconfigure Replication workflow in vRealize Orchestrator 8.0.1, you receive the following error:

  Login attempt failed

  Workaround: Deselect and select the replication again.

• You might see an error in the vSphere Replication inventory of the vRealize Orchestrator after replacing a vSphere Replication management server certificate at the local site of a pair

  If for some reason you change the certificate of the vSphere Replication management server at the local site of a replication pair, you might not be able to see the pair in the vSphere Replication inventory of the vRealize Orchestrator. You see an error similar to:
  Unable to execute 'fetchRelation' for type : Site : com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.exception.SslException: com.vmware.vim.vmomi.core.exception.CertificateValidationException: Server certificate chain is not trusted and thumbprint doesn't match

  Stale certificates in the vRealize Orchestrator inventory cause the issue.

  Workaround:

  1. Restart the vRealize Orchestrator server:
     1. Launch a console to the virtual machine on which the vRealize Orchestrator server is installed.
     2. Log in to the console as root.
     3. Run the command service vco-server restart to restart the vRealize Orchestrator server.
  2. Restart the Orchestrator client. Wait for the validation to complete. You can monitor validation progress at this url pattern: https://{your vRealize Orchestrator server address}:8283/vco-controlcenter/config/#/control-app/validate
  3. In case the vSphere Replication management server is in a pair with another vSphere Replication management server, you must reconnect the pair.
  4. In the vRealize Orchestrator inventory, unregister the old server entries and register the new ones.

Known Issues from Previous Releases

To view a list of previous known issues, click here.

The earlier known issues are grouped as follows.

• General

General

• The vSphere Replication site is not shown in the inventory view when a new vCenter instance has been added to vRealize Orchestrator.

  Workaround: Restart the vRealize Orchestrator Server service.

• Executing any of the unregister workflows from Library > vSphere Replication > Remote Site Management does not terminate the already established connection to the target site.

  Workaround: Restart the vRealize Orchestrator Server service.

• When registering vCloud Air as a Standalone Org or a Remote Cloud Site and "Ignore certificate warnings" is set to "No", the following warnings appear:
  1) Untrusted certificate, with certificate info:
  Validity : [From : Apr 23, 2013 To : Apr 27, 2016]
Organizational Unit :
Public key : RSA
Fingerprint (MD5) : 80 C1 77 2F 78 16 01 EB 9A 4B 88 E5 A3 E3 C0 29
Organization : VMware, Inc.
Common Name (6 characters min) : *.vchs.vmware.com
Country : US
Serial Number : 1B C3 C0 84
Alternative names :
[2, [2]*.vchs.vmware.com]
[2, [2]vchs.vmware.com]

  2) Wrong site - saying that the certificate is issued to *.vchs.vmware.com
  

  Workaround: Verify that the fingerprint is the same as the above, the validity is correct and continue with importing the certificate despite the warnings.

To collapse the list of previous known issues, click here.