FAQs for NSX-v 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 Controller password expiry issue
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FAQs for NSX-v 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 Controller password expiry issue

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Article ID: 303178

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Updated On:

Products

VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on Frequently Asked Questions for the NSX-v 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 Controller password expiry issue

Environment

NSX for vSphere 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 

Cause

What is the cause of the issue?  
A default 90 day password expiration has been set (from release date) for the default user accounts (admin/root) on Photon OS for NSX Controllers. 

Resolution

Customer install and upgrade scenarios:

A customer downloaded NSX-v 6.3.3 6276725 or 6.3.4 6845891 before the new builds were available and is deploying in a green field environment, from what date will they encounter the issue?

  • In NSX-v 6.3.3, a deployment failure will be encountered after November 1st, 2017.
  • The issue will be encountered in NSX-v 6.3.4 after January 1st, 2018.

Recommendation:

  • Do not use older versions if possible.
  • Download the latest binary of NSX-v 6.3.3 build 7087283 and 6.3.4 build 7087695.
  • Upgrade the NSX Manager and continue the NSX Controller deployment.


A customer downloaded NSX-v 6.3.3 6276725 or 6.3.4 6845891 before the new builds were available and is upgrading from another NSX release to one of the old NSX-v 6.3.3 or 6.3.4 builds, from what date will they encounter the issue?

  • In NSX-v 6.3.3, a deployment failure will be encountered after November 1st, 2017.
  • The issue will be encountered in NSX-v 6.3.4 as of January 1st, 2018.

Recommendation:

  • Do not use older versions if possible.
  • Download the latest binary of NSX-v 6.3.3 build 7087283 and 6.3.4 build 7087695.
  • Upgrade NSX Manager to the desired version and continue the NSX Controller deployment.


A customer is already running NSX 6.3.3 6276725 or 6.3.4 6845891 in their environment, are they also affected and from when?

  • 90 days from the date the Controllers were first deployed.

Recommendation:

  • Download the latest binary of NSX-v 6.3.3 build 7087283 and 6.3.4 build 7087695.
  • Upgrade the NSX Manager to the new binary depending on your situation and soon after the NSX Manager upgrade is complete, call for a maintenance window and delete all three Controllers and deploy New controllers.


Does upgrading from an old build of NSX-v 6.3.3 6276725 to NSX-v 6.3.4 6845891 extend the expiry date to January 1st 2018?

  • No. An upgrade from old build NSX-v 6.3.3 to old build of 6.3.4 does not change the expiry date of the password.

Recommendation:

  • If customer is not willing to upgrade to the new binary, then use the beanshell script to set the password expiry on current controllers to NEVER, BUT you have to educate customers that he/she has to upgrade sooner or later. In case the customer deletes a Controller for whatever reason, he/she will land into the same problem of deployment failure after Jan 1st 2018.
  • If customer is willing to upgrade, then download the latest binary of NSX-v 6.3.3 build 7087283 or 6.3.4 build 7087695 depending on the need.
  • Upgrade the NSX Manager and continue the NSX Controller deployment.


Customer has upgraded from the old build of NSX-v 6.3.3 6276725 to 6.3.4 6845891 prior to the 6.3.4 expiry date, will they encounter an upgrade issue going to 6.3.5 or future versions?

  • Yes. As part of the initial upgrade made from NSX-v 6.3.3 to 6.3.4 will do an in-controller upgrade which in turn does not update the 6.3.3 expiry date. In this state, any Controller re-deployments as part of a upgrade would fail.

Recommendation:  

  • Option1: before upgrading the NSX Manager to 6.3.5, use the beanshell script to change the password expiry to never and then continue with the NSX Manager upgrade followed by the NSX Controller upgrade.
  • Option2: After you upgrade the NSX Manager to 6.3.5, call for a maintenance window and delete all three NSX Controllers and perform a fresh deployment of NSX Controllers.
 

Customer is not willing or unable to upgrade to new NSX-v 6.3.3 or 6.3.4 builds.

  • Use the beanshell script that will change the password expiry to NEVER, and advise customer to upgrade to the new NSX-v 6.3.3 or new 6.3.4 when possible.
  • Also advise customers to not delete the NSX Controllers. Doing so will lead into failure to deploy NSX-v6.3.4 controller after Jan 1st 2018.



Additional Information

Impact/Risks:

What is the impact of this issue?
Controllers will fail to deploy or redeploy.

Does this issue affect communication between the NSX Manager and the NSX Controllers or any NSX data paths?
No. This issue does not cause any communication impact between any NSX components and does not cause any data path outage.

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