"Connection to sfcbd lost Attempting to reconnect: 1" message shown and upgrade is stuck when running "vamicli update --install latest" during Cloud Director Appliance upgrade

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Running the vamicli update --install latest command during Cloud Director Appliance upgrade.
• The upgrade process is stuck and shows output similar to the following:

vamicli update --install latest
Installing version -
10.4.0.8214 Build 20079248
.............................................................................Connection to sfcbd lost
Attempting to reconnect: 1
...................

• The /opt/vmware/var/log/vami/updatecli.log stops logging any additional entries.
• Access to the NFS Transfer Share is lost on the Cloud Director Cell Appliance at this phase of the upgrade.
• Custom static routes for the eth0 and eth1 network interfaces on the Appliance are no longer present after beginning the upgrade.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.x

Cause

In certain circumstances the custom static routes for the eth0 and eth1 network interfaces on the Cloud Director Appliance Cell can be lost during the upgrade.
If these static routes are required for the Cloud Director Appliance Cell to access the NFS Transfer Share then the upgrade can become stuck.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting Cloud Director 10.4.x prior to the 10.4.2 release.
The issue is resolved in VMware Cloud Director 10.4.2 and later, available at VMware Downloads.
To workaround the issue please follow the steps below if an upgrade attempt is failing.

Workaround:

To workaround the issue during an upgrade take these steps:

1. Before beginning the upgrade review the static routes which have been applied on the Cloud Director Appliance Cells so that they can be reapplied later.
   1. For eth0, run the following command:
      ovfenv --key vcloudnet.routes0.VMware_vCloud_Director
   2. For eth1, run the following command:
      ovfenv --key vcloudnet.routes1.VMware_vCloud_Director
2. Follow the Cloud Director Appliance upgrade process as outlined in the documentation, Upgrade the VMware Cloud Director Appliance by Using an Update Package.
3. At step 9 of the documentation when running the vamicli update --install latest command the issue will occur where the upgrade becomes stuck. Do not cancel the command, instead let it remain running.
4. Open a second SSH session to the same Cloud Director Appliance Cell where the upgrade is currently stalled.
5. Confirm the static routes which should be present are no longer listed, for example by running:
   ip route
6. Manually add the missing static routes which have been found to be missing, for example by running the following command with the appropriate desired values:
   ip route add {destination} via {gateway} dev {interface}
7. After adding the routes back ensure that the NFS Transfer Share is again mounted, once it is present and mounted the stuck upgrade command from step 3 above should start to continue again.
8. Continue the upgrade but do not perform step 12 to reboot the Cloud Director Appliance Cell yet.
9. Before the reboot edit the /etc/systemd/system/vcd-ova-netconfig.service to ensure the static routes are retained on all subsequent reboots by making the following changes to move the position of the vaos.service:
   Original Configuration
   [Unit]
   Description=Cloud Director Appliance Network Configuration Service
   Before=vpostgres.service vmware-vcd.service vaos.service
   After=network.target systemd-networkd.service
   ...
   
   Updated Configuration
   [Unit]
   Description=Cloud Director Appliance Network Configuration Service
   Before=vpostgres.service vmware-vcd.service
   After=network.target systemd-networkd.service vaos.service
   ...
    
10. Complete step 12 to reboot the Cloud Director Appliance Cell and all subsequent upgrade steps.