"java.lang.NullPointerException" when updating virtual machine properties in vCloud Director.

Products

VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Updating Properties of a VM returns:

class java.lang.NullPointerException

Creating a new VM in the same OVDC fails with error

class java.lang.NullPointerException

In the /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/vcloud-container-debug.log file,you see

Error executing backend call. | requestId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,request=POST https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ,userAgent=Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (...,accept=*/* method=vAppService.updateVAppVmWithStorageClass
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at com.vmware.ssdc.backend.services.impl.VAppManagerImpl.getClusterMoref(VAppManagerImpl.java:4193)
        at com.vmware.ssdc.backend.services.impl.VAppManagerImpl.createUpdateVmParams(VAppManagerImpl.java:3501)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)

Environment

VMware Cloud Director for Service Provider 9.x

Cause

This issue occurs when there is an inconsistency in the vCloud Director Database with the Resource Pool reference which is the 'getClustermoref' mentioned in the log entries.

Resolution

Note: This procedure modifies the database. Ensure to take a backup of the database before proceeding.

For every Org vDC you have, you will have at least one Resource Pool associated.
If the Org vDC is comprised of more than one entry, you will have a row in the vrp_rp table for each Resource Pool.
The org_prov_vdc table has a sub_rp_moref entry which should map to the moref of the Resource Pool located under the Primary Cluster.

Issues with Resource Pools happen under the following conditions:

Resource Pool Moref does not map between vCenter and vCloud Director (resource pool recreated in vCenter)
Resource Pool deleted in vCenter

Step 1: Validate the Resource Pools Associated with the Org vDC

select id from vrp where name like '%<OVDC name>%'
select * from vrp_rp where vrp_id = <ID from the above step>

Note: If the above command returns 2 entries, verify in the vCloud Director UI if the same number of resource pools are seen for the Org vDC

Step 2: Validate from the vCenter MOB that the Resource Pool object exists in vCenter.

In a web browser, navigate to http://vCenter_Server_name_or_IP/mob. (vCenter_Server_name_or_IP/mob is the name of your vCenter Server or its IP address).
Enter the SSO admin user credentials.
Click Content
In the URL, remove the characters after moid= and place the values noted from the sub_rp_moref value of the vrp_rp table ie. moid=resgroup-1234
If the object exists in vCenter, the details are displayed. Otherwise "This page can't be found" is displayed.

Once validated, you will know under which categories this issue falls into.

Resource Pool Moref does not map between vCenter and vCloud Director (resource pool recreated in vCenter)
Depending on the number of Resource Pools, it may require updates to some or all of the related entries.
sub_rp_moref - org_prov_vdc, vrp_rp

update org_prov_vdc set sub_rp_moref = 'value in vCenter' where sub_rp_moref = 'old value'
update vrp_rp set sub_rp_moref = 'value in vCenter' where id = '<vrp.id from earlier>' and sub_rp_moref = 'old value'

Resource Pool deleted in vCenter

Recreate the Resource Pool in vCenter, and link up the values in org_prov_vdc and vrp, where sub_rp_moref is the Resource Pool moref as per the previous steps.
The customer can then decide if they want to keep or delete the Org vDC

Once the Resource Pool references have been cleaned up in the Database, you should now be able to modify the VM.
vCloud UI > Organizations > My Cloud > Virtual Machine > Right-click Virtual machine > Properties > Update the required parameters