Data Domain: Replication Initialization is in Progress, and Upgrade Cannot Proceed
Summary: The article describes why the DD OS upgrade fails during initialization phase of replication with the message "WARNING: Replication initialization is in progress, and upgrade cannot proceed." ...
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Instructions
Symptom:
A Data Domain Operating System (DDOS) upgrade precheck fails with the following error:
Error: Replication initialization is in progress, and upgrade cannot proceed.
Resolution:
- Check if the Data Domain is configured for replication and if the replication is in an initializing state.
#replication show config ------> (To check if the replication pair has configured) #replication watch rctx:// ------> (Provide the context number to check the replication status) #replication watch rctx://1 Use Control-C to stop monitoring. (0:00:00) Replication initialize started... (0:00:10) 1%: initializing 3/3^C - As the replication initialization is in a third phase, check the replication status. The user must wait until the replication initializations complete.
# replication status rctx://1 CTX: 1 Mode: source Destination: mtree://ddve3010.dd.lab/data/col1/oracle-se2 Enabled: yes Low bandwidth optimization: disabled Replication encryption: disabled Replication propagate-retention-lock: enabled Local filesystem status: enabled Connection: connected since Fri Oct 12 12:37:24 State: initializing 3/3 1% ----> (Check how much the initialization completed) Error: no error Sync'ed-as-of time: - Current throttle: 8192K bps Max-repl-streams: 8 (default) - If the user wants to upgrade the Data Domain first, then replication must be broken on both sides.
On source: # replication break rctx://<ctx_num> ------> (Provide the context number to break the replication pair) On target: # replication break rctx://<ctx_num> ------> (Provide the context number to break the replication pair) - After the replication is broken, upgrade the DDOS.
- After the upgrade, replication can be reconfigured in one of two ways:
- Scenario A: If initialization was getting close to finishing, fastcopying the destination mtree to a temporary mtree and redoing the replication may be best.
- Scenario B: If initialization was not very far along and the progress can be discarded, delete the destination mtree and then redo the replication.
Scenario A: Saving replication progress
- On the destination Data Domain, fastcopy the replication mtree to a temporary mtree and then delete the original mtree and run cleaning for one minute to clear it out:
# mtree create /data/col1/<temp_mtree> # filesys fastcopy source <repl_mtree> destination <temp_mtree> # mtree delete /data/col1/<repl_mtree> # filesys clean start -------> only needs to run for 1 min to clear out deleted mtree - Now remake the replication on the source and destination, and initialize it on the source:
On target: # replication add source mtree://<dd_src_hostname>/data/col1/<source_mtree> destination mtree://<dd_dst_hostname>/data/col1/<dest_mtree> On source: # replication add source mtree://<dd_src_hostname>/data/col1/<source_mtree> destination mtree://<dd_dst_hostname>/data/col1/<dest_mtree> # replication init rctx://<ctx_num> - Once the initialization is done for the replication context, delete the temporary mtree off of the destination:
# mtree delete /data/col1/<temp_mtree>
Scenario B: Starting over from scratch
- On the destination Data Domain, delete the replication mtree, run cleaning, and then redo the replication:
# mtree delete /data/col1/<repl_mtree> # filesys clean start -------> only needs to run for 1 min to clear out deleted mtree - Redo the replication on the source and destination, and initialize it on source:
On target: # replication add source mtree://<dd_src_hostname>/data/col1/<source_mtree> destination mtree://<dd_dst_hostname>/data/col1/<dest_mtree> On source: # replication add source mtree://<dd_src_hostname>/data/col1/<source_mtree> destination mtree://<dd_dst_hostname>/data/col1/<dest_mtree> # replication init rctx://<ctx_num>
Affected Products
Data DomainProducts
Data DomainArticle Properties
Article Number: 000014079
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 07 Apr 2026
Version: 5
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