"The validated character sequence is empty" error on Select Storage wizard during Cross vCenter vMotion

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting a cross vCenter migration of VMs, the task fails with the below error on the Select Storage wizard:
  
  " An error occurred while trying to load data. This could be a temporary outage. You can retry the operation by clicking the retry button".


  
  
• In /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/vsphere_client_virgo.log:


  
[ERROR] http-nio-5090-exec-4125    ####### ##### com.vmware.vise.mvc.exception.GlobalExceptionHandler       Exception handled while processing request for /ui/data/propertiesByRelation/urn:vmomi:Folder:group-d1:########-####-####-####-####properties=iofilterInfo,profileContent&relation=pbmProfiles&targetType=PbmRequirementStorageProfile: java.lang.RuntimeException: com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.MethodFault: The validated character sequence is empty

• The /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/dataservice.log reports the nullpointer exception for the thumbprint :

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] [ERROR] -nio-127.0.0.1-####-exec-185 ###### ##### DataServiceImpl [queryId: q-####:h5c-DataAccessController] Error occurred while executing query:
The query sent to the Data Service is:
QuerySpec

VISE_TO_RISE_TRANSLATOR_STRICT_MODE=true
com.vmware.vim.binding.vmodl.MethodFault: The validated character sequence is empty
at com.vmware.vise.vim.commons.MixedUtil.getMethodFault(MixedUtil.java:115)
at com.vmware.vsphere.client.spbm.util.PbmUtil.getMethodFault(PbmUtil.java:186)
at com.vmware.vsphere.client.spbm.impl.ProfileProviderAdapter.processQuery(ProfileProviderAdapter.java:207)
at com.vmware.vsphere.client.spbm.impl.ProfileProviderAdapter.getData(ProfileProviderAdapter.java:136)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataAdapterUtil.getDataFromAdapter(DataAdapterUtil.java:219)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataAdapterUtil.getResultFromAdapter(DataAdapterUtil.java:176)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataAdapterUtil.access$000(DataAdapterUtil.java:42)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataAdapterUtil$1.call(DataAdapterUtil.java:82)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataAdapterUtil$1.call(DataAdapterUtil.java:79)
at com.vmware.vise.util.concurrent.ExecutorUtil$2.call(ExecutorUtil.java:826)
at com.vmware.vise.util.concurrent.ExecutorUtil$ThreadContextPropagatingTask.call(ExecutorUtil.java:1240)
at com.vmware.vise.data.query.impl.DataServiceThreadPoolDecorator$1.call(DataServiceThreadPoolDecorator.java:192)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:750)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: The validated character sequence is empty

 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0U1

Cause

• When migrating a VM across vCenters, if the destination vCenter's certificate hasn't been imported into the source vCenter, the migration wizard prompts the user to accept the certificate thumbprint, which is then correctly used to build the PBM sideCarURL.
• However, if the certificate has already been imported, the thumbprint becomes null, causing the PBM connection to fail and resulting in a UI error.

Resolution

This is a known issue with vCenter Server 8.0U1 and is fixed in vCenter Server 8.0U2 and above versions.

Workaround:

Suggested workaround is to Import VMs. User can login to desired destination vCenter and import VMs from source vCenter.
Refer: Import or Clone a Virtual Machine with Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion