Replication fails with "Error Message: Unable to replicate due to no virtual appliance being avai (4042386)

Replication using a cluster level VA fails with the following:

"Error Message: Unable to replicate due to no virtual appliance being available for the source."

This is a known product defect in vRanger 5.5 / 6.0.

The source VM and the target replica VM have the same bios.UUID causing confusion for vRanger.

Possible workaround:

Change the bios.uuid on the target replica VM

1. Unregister (remove from inventory) the target VM XXXX_replica in vSphere

2. Download the VMX file of target VM XXXX_replica the from the datastore OR change via a putty session via VI

3. Edit the vmx file of target VM XXXX_replica to change the uuid.bios (I just increase it by 1)

4. Upload the changed VMX file of target VM XXXX_replica to the datastore.

5. Re-register the target VM XXXX_replica. ( right click on the VMX – add to inventory) - This will get rid of the duplicate UUID.

6. Delete the old replication job, refresh vRanger's inventory, and create a new pre-seeded replication job using the VM with the new uuid as the replication target.