Recreating VCHA during cloning operation due to previous networking interface configuration

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Reconfiguring VCHA may fail if a former instance of VCHA was not fully destroyed properly, with the previous eth1 interface still existing within the configuration scripts.
• The file /etc/systemd/network/10-eth1.network still exists after VCHA was destroyed.
• You may see an error within the vpxd.log file:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[7F53872E5700] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=FlowBasedWizard-apply-95663-ngc:70010245-69] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-51451 -- FailoverClusterConfigurator -- vim.vcha.FailoverClusterConfigurator.configure: vmodl.MethodFault:
--> Result:
--> (vmodl.MethodFault) {
--> faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
--> faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
--> (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
--> key = "com.vmware.vcha.error.pnidHostnameMismatch",
--> arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
--> (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
--> key = "nodeIp",
--> value = "1x.x.x.x"
--> }
--> ],
--> message = <unset>
--> }
--> ]
--> msg = ""
--> }
--> Args:
-->
--> Arg configSpec:
--> (vim.vcha.FailoverClusterConfigurator.VchaClusterConfigSpec) {
--> passiveIp = "1x.x.x.x",
--> witnessIp = "1x.x.x.x"

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.x

Resolution

To resolve the issue, delete the configuration files of the former eth1 interface used for the replication network.

1. Power off existing VCHA nodes
   
   
2. Take an offline/cold snapshot of the target appliance to be converted to a standalone
   
   
3. Run the  vcha-destroy -f command on the target appliance after the vCenter VM is powered on.
   
   
4. Delete eth1 in VM settings
   
   
5. Remove /etc/systemd/network/10-eth1.network file
   
   
6. /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net and overwrite the settings with the existing info (eth1 should not be shown in the script results)
   
   
7. Delete files in /tmp


8. Restart applmgmt and vami-lighttp services,
   • service-control --restart applmgmt
   • service-control --restart vami-lighttp


9. Proceed with VCHA redeployment