Unable to establish a remote console connection in VMware Aria Automation 8.12

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Post upgrade or fresh install of  VMware Aria Automation to version 8.12,  users are unable to access managed machines via remote console, fails with either of the below error messages:
 

"Cannot establish a remote console connection. Verify that the machine is powered on. If the server has a self-signed certificate, you might need to accept the certificate, then close and retry the connection."

"Http failure response for https://FQDN/provisioning/uerp/provisioning/mgmt/compute-remote-console/provisioning-ID: 500 Internal Server Error"

Environment

VMware Aria Automation 8.12.x

Cause

• The remote console functionality has changed in the Aria Automation 8.12 release.
• This change was prompted due to the introduction of webmks and the deprecation of mks ticket type in vCenter 8.x
• Prior to  Aria Automation version 8.12, the remote console traffic from end user client machines to the ESXi hosts was proxied through the Aria Automation appliance.
• In the 8.12 release which leverages the webmks ticket type the connection is now directly made between the browser on the client machine and the ESXi host. This introduces new requirements for remote console traffic in the Aria Automation 8.12.

Resolution

 

• This issue will be fixed in VMware Aria Automation version 8.14.1.

Workaround:

• To switch to mks, remote console proxy should be enabled.

1. SSH / PuTTy into one vRA virtual appliance in the cluster
2. Edit the provisioning service deployment by running the following command

   kubectl -n prelude edit deployment provisioning-service-app

3. Set the following property in the JAVA_OPTS list to false

   -Denable.remote-console-proxy=false

Note: To edit, move the cursor to the line where you want to make the change, and press the i key on the keyboard to enter insert mode. Change the value.

Note: Be careful with spacing, do not use TABs.

Save the changes, press the escape key on the keyboard, and then save the change by pressing :wq. If you make a mistake you can exit without saving by entering :q! instead.

4. Monitor the provisioning-service-app pod restart by running watch kubectl get pods -n prelude within the Aria Automation SSH session. Once the pods are restarted and in a Ready state, retry the VMRC connection.
5. If it still fails with 1st error, renew the certificates on ESXi hosts.
6. Try to access remote console, a warning of certificate will appear in browser window, accept the certificate
7. Refresh the browser and should be able to access the remote console.

NOTE : The steps are only applicable for Aria Automation version 8.12 & above.

           For version below, Please follow VMware KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/90655