Toggling between ConcurrentVSOServerFactoryClient and VSOServerFactoryClient in VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator 8.x

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When using Automation Orchestrator, GET requests for DynamicTypes objects intermittently fail with 404 for less than a second.
• Logs related to the finder action or workflows are showing No active session with id [uuid] similar to

  2021-11-30T03:22:00.213Z INFO vco [host='vco-app-56f4599844-97p2b' thread='http-nio-8280-exec-2693' user='vro-gateway-ltFOYESc2VqomwqF' org='-' trace='-'] - 10.244.0.91 - - [30/Nov/2021:03:22:00 +0000] GET /vco/api/catalog/DynamicTypes/VDI.vdi-static/VDI8900152 HTTP/1.1 404 435 44 ms
  2021-11-30T03:22:00.196Z WARN vco [host='vco-app-56f4599844-97p2b' thread='http-nio-8280-exec-2693' user='vro-gateway-ltFOYESc2VqomwqF' org='-' trace='-'] {} com.vmware.o11n.plugin.dynamictypes.util.VcoServerFactoryClient - No active session with id [24171622-c12e-49f6-b717-871506ba9b0b

Cause

The token used by the plugin factory has expired.

Resolution

To prevent No active session errors: 

• Install plugin version later than 1.3.7 
• In Automation Orchestrator Control Center, add the following system property: 
  • name: com.vmware.o11n.plugin.dynamictypes.factoryClient
  • value: concurrent

Additional Information

Orchestrator version 8.6.1 contains a fix for the token expiration.

DynamicTypes plugin version 1.3.6-19061789 and later contains a fix for the "No active session error", using concurrent factory.

DynamicTypes plugin version 1.3.9 has the option to switch between concurrent and simple plugin factories - the concurrent ensures that the factory session is valid. The default value, however, is "simple", since this version of the plugin is first distributed with Automation Orchestrator 8.12.2 where the token expiration error should not be present. The "concurrent" option is intended to be used for versions prior to 8.6.1.

Impact/Risks:

Using concurrent factory for the DynamicTypes plugin may lead to increased thread consumption when Orchestrator is under a heavy load. If thread usage becomes problematic, GET requests to Automation Orchestrator taking too much time or logs are showing that the thread pool was exhausted, perform the following:

• Upgrade Automation Orchestrator to 8.6.1 or later
• Upgrade DynamicTypes plugin to 1.3.9 or later
• In Automation Orchestrator Control Center, change the following system property:

name: com.vmware.o11n.plugin.dynamictypes.factoryClient
value: simple