Virtual Machine console times out after one minute when using a System Administrator user

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• When opening a VM console using a System administrator user, the console times out after 1 minute.
• VM web consoles reconnect automatically after disconnecting but VMRC remote consoles remain disconnected and must be reopened.
• Tenant users do not encounter the issue.
• In the /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/console-proxy.log, entries as below are logged:

2023-09-26 10:00:55,484 | DEBUG    | nioEventLoopGroup-2-40    | ServerWebSocket                | onClose: status=1,011, reason=vmware internal error 08 [server: [L=/<IP>:443 R=/<IP>:47982]] [client: [id: 0xe575041b, L:/<IP>:60096 - R:<VCD FQDN>/<IP>:443]] |

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.4.2.2

VMware Cloud Director 10.5

Cause

The problem occurs because the monitoring that ends VM console sessions for deactivated users incorrectly ends the VM console sessions of all service provider users after the default interval of one minute.  The problem does not affect tenant users of VMware Cloud Director.

Resolution

This matter is resolved in Cloud Director 10.5.1 and 10.4.3 which are available for download here.

Workaround:

The following workarounds are available to use:

1.  Execute the below command from one of the Cloud Director cells to disable the monitoring feature which disconnects the consoles.
   
   $VCLOUD_HOME/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n console-proxy.monitor-interval-ms -v 9223372036854775807
   
   
2. This issue only impacts System administrators, so use a Tenant users account instead and open the Console with that account.
3. Administrators with vCenter Server access can use the vSphere consoles from vCenter to access VMs if needed.