After deploying a new Cloud Director instance you see that the failover mode is in an "INDETERMINATE" status.

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After deploying a new Cloud Director Appliance cluster, when viewing the cluster status at https://<fqdn>:5480 the cluster status is Healthy but the failover status is INDETERMINATE. 

Running the cluster matrix displays the other cells as '?' status. 
Run the following on your Cloud Director cell

• su postgres
• /opt/vmware/vpostgres/10/bin/repmgr -f /opt/vmware/vpostgres/10/etc/repmgr.conf cluster matrix

This will show the other cells in the cluster matrix as '?' in the node columns.  
You may also see the error "node ###### inaccessible via SSH" 

Firstboot failure
You see errors in your firstboot and setupvcd logs

Firstboot.log

Invoking setupvcd script ...
[ERROR] setupvcd script failed to execute. For more details, see: /opt/vmware/var/log/vcd/setupvcd.log

Setupvcd.log

Configuring VCD from response file (/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/data/transfer/responses.properties)...
Please enter the private key password for the 'http' SSL certificate: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
 at com.vmware.vcloud.cell.management.InputUtils.readPassword(InputUtils.java:105)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.cell.management.InputUtils.readPassword(InputUtils.java:70)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.common.cmt.CertificateInputUtils.getKeyStoreEntry(CertificateInputUtils.java:212)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.common.cmt.CertificateInputUtils.configureServerCertificates(CertificateInputUtils.java:170)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.configure.legacy.ConfigAgent.configureCertificates(ConfigAgent.java:751)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.configure.legacy.ConfigAgent.configureCell(ConfigAgent.java:479)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.configure.legacy.ConfigAgent.start(ConfigAgent.java:377)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.configure.legacy.ConfigAgentExecutor.start(ConfigAgentExecutor.java:87)
 at com.vmware.vcloud.configure.legacy.ConfigAgentExecutor.main(ConfigAgentExecutor.java:81)
2020-05-04 19:03:14 | [ERROR] Failed to configure vCD. Check /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs for details. Aborting.
        

Cause

This issue arises when all of the initial configuration scripts did not finish running successfully on first boot after deploying from the .ova. 

Resolution

Inspect your logs to determine why the vcd setup did not complete  (opt/vmware/var/log/firstboot.log and /opt/vmware/var/log/vcd/setupvcd.log).

If you see the following error in your setupvcd.log, this issue occurred because  the password for the private key, keystore, and root user account was not all the same. 

Please enter the private key password for the 'http' SSL certificate: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException

Please see Deploy the VMware Cloud Director Appliance with Signed Wildcard Certificates for HTTPS and Console Proxy Communication . 
In particular the line that states: 

"Verify that the private password for the keys within the keystore matches the password of the keystore. The keystore password must match the initial root password used when deploying all appliances."
 

To resolve this issue we must redeploy the cells and ensure that the password matches the private key, keystore, and root user account.

If there is a different error in your firstboot and vcdsetup logs please open a support request for further assistance in troubleshooting the initial startup scripts.