vCenter adapter integration failure in Aria Operations

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

The purpose of this article is to explain how to resolve common issues that arise when integrating a vCenter with Aria Operations.

Symptoms:

• Selecting Validate Connection or Save the configuration will result in an error similar to:
  

  Cannot complete login due to incorrect user name or password

  or

  Permission to perform this operation was denied

  or

  Host is not reachable

   

• vCenter adapter status shows warning with "Unable to connect to VC" error message or "Certificate verification failed"
  

  State: Collecting
  Status: Object Down
  Message: Unable to connect to VC

   

•  Configured Multiple vCenters, and when validating the connection after adding the password to the Credentials, the other vCenter adapter(s) enter a warning state. 

Environment

Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

• vCenter accounts are case sensitive, ensure to use capital letters if required.
• The account being used must have the minimum permissions in vCenter.
• The service account username was provided without the domain.
• FQDN/IP of the target vCenter must be reachable from ALL nodes in the cluster bidirectionally on port 443. (See ports.broadcom.com for more details.)
• The same credential was used for multiple vCenters so when updating the credential to use the password for one vCenter the second vCenter adapter goes into warning state because either the username and/or password is not the same for both vCenters.  

Resolution

• Verify and accurately enter the username and password for vCenter. (Note that vCenter accounts are case sensitive, so ensure to match the exact capitalization as required).
• vCenter authentication requires the domain to be explicitly specified as part of the username format (e.g., domain\username or username@domain).
• Ensure the account being used has the required vCenter permissions.
  • vCenter service account requirements
• Verify FQDN/IP of the target vCenter is reachable from all the nodes.
• Ensure you are creating separate credentials with the relevant username and password for the different vCenters.  Please refer to Configuring Credentials in Integrations documentation 

Additional Information

Review article Certificate overview for VMware Aria Operations section 'Adapter and authentication sources' for more information on endpoint certificates and potential caveats.