SNMP v3 trap packets are not sent by vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2 and later versions

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter Server fails to send SNMP v3 traps.
• The configuration is validated with a successful test trap using the command : snmp.test 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to 2 separate agents on the vCenter Appliance - one for vpxd and one for snmp. Alarms use the vpxd agent to send traps whereas the snmp agent allows for traps to be sent to servers outside of the VCSA.

This failure in the installation of vmwspp RPM on 8.0u2 is because of we have moved to FIPS compliant RPM version in this release, which enforces stricter rules for RPM header digest and file digest. Which means, any usage of SHA1 and MD5 is dis-allowed. Hence same package works on 7.0 which is having older RPM version (non FIPS compliant) but fails on 8.0 because of FIPS compliant RPM version.

Resolution

VMware Engineering is aware of this issue.

To work around this limitation, follow the steps below:

1. Make sure to create a new snapshot of the vCenter Server appliance. Be aware that if the appliance is part of an ELM replication setup, offline snapshots of this appliance as well as of all of its replication partners are needed.
2. Download the vmware-spp-1.1.0-Linux.zip archive attached to this article and extract it.
3. Upload the extracted vmware-spp-1.1.0-Linux.rpm file to the vCenter Server Appliance.
4. Connect to the appliance via SSH and login with root.
5. In the BASH shell, run the following command to confirm that the rpm is in valid state:

   # rpm -qi vmware-spp-1.1.0-Linux.rpm

6. Install the RPM:

   # rpm -Uvh  vmware-spp-1.1.0-Linux.rpm

7. Verify that the vmware SPP service was created:

   # systemctl status vmwspp

8. Start the service:

   # systemctl start vmwspp

9. Confirm that the service is up and running:

   # systemctl status vmwspp

10. In the vCenter GUI, ensure that vpxd SNMP configuration is the same as below. The configuration is found under vCenter > Configure > Settings > General > SNMP Receivers.
11. Using the Appliance Shell, confirm the configuration:

    snmp.get

12. If required, setup the VCSA SNMP agent to send SNMPv3 traps as per Configure vCenter Server Appliance for SNMP v3.

 

NOTE : The vmwspp service currently requires a manual restart after every vCenter reboot. To fix this, verify its startup configuration by running 'systemctl is-enabled vmwspp'. If the service is disabled, run 'systemctl enable vmwspp' so it starts automatically on boot.

Additional Information

MD5SUM of the RPM file  

d0d632dec78914fdb12048c44ea815de *vmware-spp-1.1.0-Linux.rpm