SDDC Pre-check fails at Backup user password validity with an error "check for password validity of backup user"

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
VCF Management domain pre-check failed at Backup user password validity with an error “Check for password validity of backup user”. Error snippet as below:

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x

Cause

Backup user password is expired. Review lcm logs for specific credential and reason for execution failure.

Resolution

Take a snapshot of SDDC Manager VM

Backup user password validation:

1. SSH to SDDC manager using vcf user account.
2. Switch to root account: su –
3. Type command: chage -l backup to verify backup user account ageing information
4. (Optional) If the backup user account password is expired, perform following steps or skip to next section
5. using root account, switch to backup user account: su – backup
6. Clear password history backup user account:  echo “” > /etc/security/opasswd
7. Set password for the backup user (password should be same as the backup user password when searched at lookup_passwords in SDDC Manager. : passwd < backup password from the lookup_passwords>
8. Repeat step 3 to validate.

Validate entity id for the backup user and update it if required in SDDC manager database:

1. SSH to SDDC manager using vcf user account
2. Switch to root account: su –
3. Login to SDDC manager platform database: psql -h localhost -U postgres -d platform
4. Check current entity id for BACKUP : select * from credential where username='BACKUP';
5. Compare BACKUP entityid with SDDC Manager id : select * from sddc_manager_controller;
6. If BACKUP entity id is different, update it : update credential set entityid = '<sddc-manager-id>' where username='backup';
7. Additionally, it's recommended to check VM name of the SDDC manager in platform database. If VM name of SDDC Manager in output is not matching with the VM name of SDDC Manager in the vCenter inventory, update it according to the VM name in the vCenter inventory, steps as follows: select * from sddc_manager_controller;
   • If VM name is not matching, follow below steps to update it: update sddc_manager_controller set vm_name=<vm-name>;
   • 
8. Exit from database: \q
9. Run pre-check on the SDDC manager UI. If pre-check is successful, proceed for the upgrade/migration.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
This is a blocker for the Management domain upgrade.