vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance SSO cannot communicate with Oracle RAC and NON-RAC Databases

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• SSO installation with a Non-RAC Oracle database connection fails.
• vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) cannot communicate with an Oracle RAC environment.
• vCenter Server and vCSA cannot communicate with an Oracle Non-RAC environment.
• vCenter Server and vCSA cannot connect to the database.
• The vCenter Inventory Service fails to install.
• vCenter Server and vCenter Server objects are not visible when logged into the vSphere Web Client.

Cause

This issue occurs when the vCenter Server installer generates and validates the JDBC URL for the vCenter Server database. If the installer fails to connect to the database using the generated JDBC URL, the installer prompts you to specify the JDBC URL. You can also specify the JDBC URL during the vCenter Single Sign-On installation.

The short form of the JDBC URL has the format:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@//scan-name:port/servicename

The long form uses the TNSNAMES compliant descriptor:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=scan-name)(PORT=1521)))(LOAD_BALANCE=ON)(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=servicename))

The long form is not necessary to support load balancing with Round Robin DNS and SCAN. The long form is appropriate when using TCPS for encrypted database connections via Oracle Wallets or JKS keystores.

For more information, see JDBC URL Formats for the vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On Databases section in the vSphere 5.1 Upgrade Guide.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure that the Oracle database RAC release version is the officially supported Oracle version 11.2.0.3.0 or above, including version 11.2.0.4.0.

For more information, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

Additional Information

vCenter Server 5.1 Single Sign-On requires that database users for an external database are manually created.

To work around this issue, manually create the database user prior to installing vCenter Single Sign-On by running this script:

SSOInstaller Folder\Single Sign On\DBScripts\SSOServer\schema\Database\rsaIMSLite\DB\SetupUsers.sql

For more information on RSA and SSO changes, see the VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0a Release Notes.