Request is stuck at Pending Approval status in vRA 7.x

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
A request is stuck at Pending Approval status and does not have a valid approver in vRealize Automation (vRA).

Environment

VMware vRealize Automation 7.x

Cause

This issue occurs when:

• The approver for the request is no longer a member of the approvers group (no longer with the company).
• The approver was added to the approval group after the request was created.

Resolution

Prerequisites:

• You have valid snapshots or backups of the system before proceeding.

Procedure:

1. Connect to vRealize Automation appliance through SSH using root credentials.
2. Open Postgres as user postgres running the command:
   
   /opt/vmware/vpostgres/9.4/bin/psql -U postgres
   
   
3. Change to the vRA database:
   
   \c vcac
   
   
4. Enable expanded view:
   
   \x
   
5. Run the below command to check the details of work item to ensure this is the correct approval in question:
   
   select * from work_item where workitemnumber=##;
   
   where ## is the approval number
   
   You should see it includes all the relevant information to process this request once approved.
   
   
6. After verifying the right work item details, run the below command to change the status to "cancelled" :
   
   update work_item set state=’CANCELLED’ where workitemnumber=##;
   
   where ## is the approval number

After a UI refresh, you see that Pending Approval state is changed.