SO glad I figured this one out!!!
When deploying the vSphere Replication appliance (VRA) for standalone vSphere replication, you deploy the servers, they connect to their local vCenters but when you try and pair the sites, you get this error:
"Site pairing or break operation failed."
AND THAT'S IT! No clues, no hints. no NOTHING.
As it turns out, this is a DNS issue. Here is how to fix it.
1) Log into all 4 servers, ProdVC, DRVC, Prod VRA, DR VRA, and make sure you can do forward and revers nslookups for all servers.
2) Log into the VAMI for the two VRAs
3) Unregister the VRA from vCenter
4) Make sure that the local site name field and the vCenter field are FQDN, not short name, not IP, FQDN!
5) Save and restart for both VRAs
6) Log out and back into both of the vCenter Server web clients
7) Pair your sites
Hope this helps somebody, I nearly broke my skull while beating my head against the wall on this one!
**********************************************Disclaimer**********************************************
This blog is in no way sponsored, supported or endorsed by VMware. Any configuration or environmental changes are to be made at your own risk. Casey, VMware, and any other company and/or persons mentioned in this blog take no responsibility for anything.
Thanks, great help
ReplyDeleteI had a cracked skull, too. Thank you for this post. Very helpful. I might add, if anyone gets a long bold RED string error when trying to "unregister from vCenter Server", simply restart the actual VM and repeat above steps.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! Don't forget to follow me on twitter! @SRM_Guru
ReplyDeleteYou are a life saver!
ReplyDeleteThx a lot, but this did not fix my problem.
ReplyDeleteI try to connect two sites: Prod Site A has ProdVC 5.1/VRA 5.1 and DR Site B has ProdVC5.5/VRA5.5
I have checked everything as mentioned, but when I try to connect the ProdVC-A to ProdVC-B I still get these damned "SIte pairing or break operation failed".
I also tested everything you mentioned about port connectivity and it all works!!
Any imcompatibility between VR 5.1 and VR5.5?
Hey Thierry,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in response. vSphere Replication 5.1 is not compatible with vSphere Replication 5.5. Your VRA appliance must be at the exact same build number to pair. In this case, you have really only one option and that is to upgrade your Site A VC and VRA to 5.5. Hope this helps!
would this also be a possible issue for sites not pairing because "Remote VCS does not have a registered SRM plug-in? Same version VCS build on both sites, same version SRM (5.8.1-2991419) on both sites. HP SRAs installed both sites.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys great help, I kept on getting permission errors and was given an administrator roll at a new site, by default... admin should have permission (VR), I was wrong this time, checked the ....\administrator roll and nope the VR options werent selected, added the permissions and boom it worked. I then had to redeploy appliances and pairing failed. I cleared my history on IE/chrome but still error. I then went onto my virtual center server and ran it there for the first time and Boom, it worked. Thx all
ReplyDeleteso that's what causes it.....thanks a lot
ReplyDeleteOk so I found this looking for an answer for a filed "unpair" of SRM sites. Got a really hosed recovery site install (missing embedded database). Try to unpair just doesn't work and no way to uninstall on recovery site uninstall just won't complete.
ReplyDeleteAny Help