Replica VM file is missing from destination host

[Spad]

I have two VMs which, due to an administrative cockup, have had their existing replicas deleted from our backup storage. Now, every time the job runs on either of them, they fail with the error:

"Checking destination Replica VM file '/path/to/vm/replica/replica.vbk' is missing from destination host '[backuphost]'. If you are using initial replica seeding, please follow the instruction from the readme.txt file in the chosen seeding location. If you changed replica destination in the replication job settings, please make sure you have moved all replica files to the new destination correctly."

I've tried removing the VMs from the job in question and re-adding it, but it still identifies as the same VM and still fails with the same error. Is there a way to remove the record of a VM from a replica job (and effectively wipe the slate clean for that machine's backups) without affecting other VMs in the job?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Adam,

Please use "Delete from Disk" option on your existing record for your replicas, it will remove all the references in Veeam SQL DB as well, then you can re-try your job, that should fix your problem.

Thank you.

[Spad]

Is there any way to do that for a single replica rather than the entire job?

[Gostev]

Adam, the following should work:
1. Edit the replication job properties to remove the affected VMs from the job, be sure to click Finish in the wizard to apply the new job settings.
2. Delete the replica files manually from target ESX (just remove the corresponding replica VM folder with all files).
3. Edit the replication job properties to add the affected VMs back to the same replication job, and click Finish in the wizard.
4. Run the job normally.

[EDIT] Actually, this is not going to work - just tried... Delete from Disk on the job is required to purge all configuration database records around VM, just removing and re-adding VM will not clean up all required records.

[Spad]

Adam, the following should work:
1. Edit the replication job properties to remove the affected VMs from the job, be sure to click Finish in the wizard to apply the new job settings.
2. Delete the replica files manually from target ESX (just remove the corresponding replica VM folder with all files).
3. Edit the replication job properties to add the affected VMs back to the same replication job, and click Finish in the wizard.
4. Run the job normally.

[EDIT] Actually, this is not going to work - just tried... Delete from Disk on the job is required to purge all configuration database records around VM, just removing and re-adding VM will not clean up all required records.

I was just about to say that - I tried it last night and it didn't work. So does this mean that there's no way to fix those two VMs without deleting all of the other replicas that are part of that job, or is there a way to selectively remove replicas from a job either directly or via SQL script; or some other workaround?

Otherwise I suppose the only alternative is to create new seperate jobs for these VMs, which is less of a hassle than deleting the old jobs, but not really ideal.

[Vitaliy S.]

Adam,

Actually, you can either create a new job for those VMs or you can use the following workaround: you need to re-register those VMs using vSphere client, in this case newly registered VMs will get the new ID and then you can easily add those VMs back to your replication job, so those VMs will be treated as new VMs, and replication job wouldn't fail in this case.

Hope it helps.

[Spad]

That's sorted it, thanks

[MB-NS]

Adam, the following should work:
1. Edit the replication job properties to remove the affected VMs from the job, be sure to click Finish in the wizard to apply the new job settings.
2. Delete the replica files manually from target ESX (just remove the corresponding replica VM folder with all files).
3. Edit the replication job properties to add the affected VMs back to the same replication job, and click Finish in the wizard.
4. Run the job normally.

[EDIT] Actually, this is not going to work - just tried... Delete from Disk on the job is required to purge all configuration database records around VM, just removing and re-adding VM will not clean up all required records.

Hello, will this now work in version 5 ? I know it will for backups, but what about replications ?