Another quick fix...... if you look in the logs.

Help! My SRM Service is dead!

What's wrong?!

So your SRM service is dying? What do you do? Call VMware? Call your system admin? Call the hardware vendor? NO! You open the logs! The SRM logs give great insight into why the SRM service is crashing, usually it even tells you what is wrong. So Casey, where are these magical logs you speak of? The SRM logs for SRM 5.x are at

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager\Logs\vmware-dr.txt

If the service is crashing, the logical place to look for the error is at the bottom. Scroll all the way to the bottom and read the last page or so of the logs. In this case, the customer saw this error:

Initializing service content: std::exception 'class Vmacore::Exception' "Registration with the local VC server is not valid"

As it turns out, the customer had encountered and issue over the weekend and had to re-install vCenter. This wiped out the SRM extension.

So that's nice, how did you fix it?! 

Simple. Do a modify install. This will register SRM to the new vCenter. We did the modify install, kept all the old settings (used the previous database, kept the same certificate, etc.) and when we were done, the service stayed up and everything was fixed! Just goes to show you, a little log review can go a looooooong way!


Want the SRM findings of a TSE in the trenches? Follow me on Twitter! @SRM_Guru


**********************************************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.