VLCM service fails to start due to missing vlcmuser in pg_hba.conf - vCenter Server 8.0.x

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The VLCM service will not start/crashes during startup.
  
  
• When running a file-based backup from the VAMI, it errors out with "VLCM Service not running".

• The error no healthy upstream appears under the Updates tab on the vCenter UI.

  
  
  
• The following log entries appear in the vlcm logs:
  
  <date:time>.523Z fatal vlcm [cmd/main.go:171] Failed to initialize Service Config unable to find db authentication method
<date:time>.256Z info vlcm [cmd/main.go:150] Initializing vLCM Service. pid=40110
<date:time>.256Z info vlcm [serviceconfig/config.go:154] Extracting properties from /etc/vmware-vlcm/vlcm_db/vlcm.properties
<date:time>.256Z warning vlcm [serviceconfig/config.go:173] Properties file (/etc/vmware-vlcm/vlcm_db/vlcm.properties) password key does not exist
<date:time>.256Z info vlcm [serviceconfig/config.go:272] No UDS support for 'vlcmuser' found in /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf
<date:time>.256Z error vlcm [serviceconfig/config.go:177] Neither password nor UDS authentication is available for vlcmuser
<date:time>.256Z error vlcm [serviceconfig/config.go:111] Unable to initialize dbConfig unable to find db authentication method
<date:time>.256Z fatal vlcm [cmd/main.go:171] Failed to initialize Service Config unable to find db authentication method
  
  

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

The vlcmuser entry is missing from the /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf file, preventing the vLCM service from authenticating with the local database.

Resolution

1.) Take a backup of the /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf file:

• cp /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf.old

2.) Open the file /storage/db/vpostgres/pg_hba.conf with vi and add the below entry to the file (see example image below for clarification):

• # hba entries for role vlcmuser
local        VCDB            vlcmuser                        peer map=vcdb

 

 

3.) Restart postgres service:
service-control --restart vpostgres

4.) Manually start the vlcm service:
service-control --start vlcm

Additional Information

If this issue is encountered on vCenter 8.0 P01 (8.0.0.10200) or higher, open a support request with VMware by Broadcom. Consider subscribing to learn when a product fix is available. See Subscribe to a Broadcom knowledge article for more details.