I had to update the IP address of a VMware SRM server recently, but after the update, the SRM service wouldn’t start.  Of course…why should that be that simple?!

Symptoms:

From %AppData%\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\Logs\vmware-dr-x.log:

Ah-ha!  vCenter is pointing to the old IP, which clearly isn’t this SRM server.  That’s why the service isn’t starting.

Turns out that when SRM configures vCenter it gives it the SRM server’s IP address instead of it’s hostname/FQDN.  So much for DNS rules all VMware environments.

 So where to change this setting?

Running C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin\srm-config -cmd info -cfg ../config/vmware-dr.xml provides me the following information:

So, it’s the SRM extension that’s holding onto the old IP.

The fix:
Update the IP address in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\extension.xml file in two spots

a.      <server>
<url>http://192.168.254.12:8095</url>

b.     <client>
<url>http://192.168.254.12:8096/VMware-srmplugin.exe</url>

2.
Run C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\bin\srm-config -cmd updateext -cfg ../config/vmware-dr.xml –extcfg ../config/extension.xml

And voila…