VMware Advanced Load Balancer (ALB) appliances are missing on NSX UI after restoring NSX-T from backup

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• You are using NSX Advanced Load Balancer (ALB) in your NSX environment.
• You recently restored your NSX Managers from backup.
• After NSX restore has been completed the NSX ALB appliances are not present in the appliance section in NSX UI, and may show that you need to deploy:

• NSX ALB configurations may be still present in NSX UI and show in failed state. For example, configuration for virtual services.
• Communication between NSX ALB and NSX Manager/Environment is still functional without issue.
• You are unable to to redeploy a new ALB with the same configurations.

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

This issue occurs due to staleentries remaining in the NSX database.

Resolution

This is a known issue impacting NSX-T Data Center.

Workaround:

Please make sure any configurations are backed up before running the below API.
This will remove the ALB from NSX and allow you to deploy it fresh again.

1. Get the ALB controller deployments using the below API:
   GET /policy/api/v1/alb/controller-nodes/deployments
    
2. Delete NSX ALB controller configuration from NSX Managers using the below API and redeploy NSX ALB:
   POST /policy/api/v1/alb/controller-nodes/deployments/<node-id>?action=delete
    
3. Even after deleting the stale NSX ALB controller through above api if the stale entries are still available in the manager, you can delete the stale entry using forceful delete:
   POST /policy/api/v1/alb/controller-nodes/deployments/<node-id>?action=delete&force_delete=true&inaccessible
    
4. Once the controllers have been deleted new NSX ALB can be deployed through the NSX UI.

Additional Information

NSX REST API Guide