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Un-able to exclude cache disk from Azure site recovery replication,

Mohamed Gharbeya 20 Reputation points
2026-04-02T06:41:53.6666667+00:00

Greeting

We have recently setup azure site recovery, azure vault and the on-premises process/config server have been created successfully

Our goal is to replication VMWare virtual machine and exclude the cache disk from replication

However when trying to enable replication for some virtual machines, the option to choose disks is grayed out and all disks selected

Facts

  • Source virtual machine is a windows server operating system
  • We previously enabled replication from a group of virtual machine and we were able to exclude disk replication
Azure Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery

An Azure native disaster recovery service. Previously known as Microsoft Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager.

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-04-02T06:42:12.6333333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    For VMware-to-Azure replication, disks can be excluded only at the Properties → Configure properties step of the Enable replication wizard, after the Mobility service is (or will be) installed and the VM has been fully discovered.

    In the screenshot, the Disks to replicate dropdown is disabled at the Source settings step. This is expected behavior: at this stage Site Recovery has not yet presented the per‑disk list. OS and dynamic disks also cannot be excluded.

    To exclude the cache disk:

    1. In the Enable replication wizard, complete Source and Source settings as usual (leave “All disks” as is here).
    2. Proceed to Target and then to Properties.
    3. Under Properties → Configure properties, Site Recovery shows all discovered disks for each selected VM.
    4. Clear the Include checkbox for the cache disk that should not be replicated, then select OK.
    5. Finish the wizard.

    If the cache disk still does not appear as excludable at the Properties step, verify that:

    • The Mobility service is installed and healthy on the VM.
    • The disk is not the OS disk and is not a dynamic disk (these cannot be excluded).

    For Azure‑to‑Azure scenarios, disk exclusion is supported only via PowerShell; in the VMware‑to‑Azure scenario shown, it is supported directly in the portal at the Properties step.

    References:

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  1. Mohamed Gharbeya 20 Reputation points
    2026-04-02T06:47:10.8233333+00:00

    It turned out that dynamic disk cannot be excluded from replication, disk has to be converted to basic disk to be excluded, to do that you need one of the following options
    1- Use third party tools like EaseUS, AOMEI, or NIUBI
    2- Or add a new disk to the virtual machine and moving the paging to it in the operating system

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