I think i have figured what issues you are running into.
From what i have noticed VE's dynamically map mac addresses to interfaces to ensure that the same mac is associated to the same virtual interface regardless of the initialization order of the interface.
The db vlan.macassignment value determines how mac addresses are assigned, you can reference http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/12000/700/sol12724 to get a high level idea of some different values that can be used.
The default sys vlan.macassignmen value is "vmw-compat", this option will throw a configuration error on physical devices.
To config sync from virtual to physical you will need to change the value to Global. Please make sure you aware of the potential impact of this change before making it.
RObert