Deployments from a subscribed content library timeout in vSphere 7.0

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Deploying VMs from a content library may fail
• The subscribed library is configured to "download contents only when needed"
• Messages regarding the VM import failing are seen in /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log before the failure

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vpxd[52879] [Originator@6876 sub=VAppImport opID=4e4b3e8d-01] Removing VM [vim.VirtualMachine:vm-321,vm-123] due to failed import
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] error vpxd[62818] [Originator@6876 sub=VAppImport opID=652c4668-01] Caught exception while importing VM: N3Vim5Fault8Timedout9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.Timedout
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] info vpxd[52879] [Originator@6876 sub=VAppImport opID=4e4b3e8d-01] Done cleaning up after failed import

• At the time of the failure, the network copy failure is reported in /var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] | DEBUG    | e4ad4133-c135-4952-a39a-fac6cc987407 | transferService-pool-5-thread-4280 | VcTaskUtils                    | task moref : ManagedObjectReference: type = Task, value = task-123456, serverGuid = null finished with error, status: error.
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] | ERROR    | e4ad4133-c135-4952-a39a-fac6cc987407 | transferService-pool-5-thread-4280 | TransferEndpointImpl           | Session 36d6c018-0a71-4b62-ac43-412429568288, Item svm-123.vmdk, Endpoint ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:987654321abcdef-abcdefg123456789//12344678-abcd-efab-cdef-g98776654321/vm-123.vmdk: Error during transfer of ds:///vmfs/volumes/vsan:987654321abcdef-abcdefg123456789//12344678-abcd-efab-cdef-g98776654321/vm-123.vmdk: Could not complete network copy for file /vmfs/volumes/vsan:1234567abcd890-98765abcdef123456//contentlib-ee9e2022-71cd-4c1c-8361-ecc342915ab9/b7eb0684-ab2b-43d7-8fd7-c1e174c667a2/svm-123_75db921b-3a11-4761-9438-facb16acae1c.vmdk
(vim.fault.NetworkCopyFault) {
   faultCause = null,
   faultMessage = null,
   file = /vmfs/volumes/vsan:1234567abcd890-98765abcdef123456//contentlib-ee9e2022-71cd-4c1c-8361-ecc123456678/b7eb0684-ab2b-43d7-8fd7-123456787/svm-123_75db921b-3210-4567-9438-facb16acae1c.vmdk

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

Cause

This occurs when the deployment cannot completely transfer the library item contents from the publisher library to the destination before the task is timed out by vpxd. It is more likely to happen during large-scale deployments where many tasks are queued and waiting for others to complete. It is possible to encounter this with a very large single VM deployment as well if its transfer time exceeds the 30 minute timeout window.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter 7.0 Update 3f (build number 20051473).

Workaround:

To workaround the issue, configure the subscribed content library to download all contents immediately. This will bypass the process that the timeout affects.

Additional Information

For information on changing content download settings see: Managing a Subscribed Library