NSX-T UI doesn't list existing backups in the restore section

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

1. From a browser, log in to a freshly installed NSX Manager.
2. Select System > Utilities from the navigation panel.
3. Click the Restore tab.
4. Check that the backup server is configured correctly.
5. The UI does not show any backups to restore, even if it has been confirmed that backups are being created successfully.

The proton/nsxapi.log will show error entries for BackupRestoreJschLogger similar to the ones below:

2020-08-28T12:30:40.650Z  INFO http-nio-127.0.0.1-7440-exec-5 BackupRestoreJschLogger - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="########-####-####-####-########84df" subcomp="manager" username="admin"] Authentications that can continue: publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
2020-08-28T12:30:40.650Z  INFO http-nio-127.0.0.1-7440-exec-5 BackupRestoreJschLogger - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="########-####-####-####-########84df" subcomp="manager" username="admin"] Next authentication method: publickey
2020-08-28T12:30:40.650Z  INFO http-nio-127.0.0.1-7440-exec-5 BackupRestoreJschLogger - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="########-####-####-####-########84df" subcomp="manager" username="admin"] Authentications that can continue: keyboard-interactive,password
2020-08-28T12:30:40.650Z  INFO http-nio-127.0.0.1-7440-exec-5 BackupRestoreJschLogger - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="########-####-####-####-########84df" subcomp="manager" username="admin"] Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive
2020-08-28T12:30:40.650Z  INFO http-nio-127.0.0.1-7440-exec-5 BackupRestoreJschLogger - SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" reqId="########-####-####-####-########84df" subcomp="manager" username="admin"] Disconnecting from sftp.server.domain.net port 22

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

There is a known issue involving Java  keyboard-interactive SFTP authentication (used by the UI and the restore API) in NSX-T 3.0.1 and below.

It will affect SFTP servers where "keyboard-interactive" authentication is enabled, but "password" authentication is disabled.

Resolution

This issue has been resolved in NSX-T 3.0.2 and above.

Workaround:
This issue can be resolved temporarily by enabling password authentication on the SFTP server configuration.

1. Edit the sshd_config.txt file and enable password authentication
2. Restart sshd service on an Ubuntu or Debian Linux using the sudo systemctl restart ssh.service or RHEL/CentOS Linux user run sudo systemctl restart sshd.service

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
It won't be possible to begin the backup restore process.