Script to remove stale service registrations from vCenter Server.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Improper decommissioning of the 6.x PSC node or any vCenter from ELM might leave stale service registrations on the vCenter which leads to other issues.

Steps to check stale registrations on vCenter Server:

1. List of the services registered within the Platform Services Controller.
   

   • /usr/lib/vmware-lookupsvc/tools/lstool.py list --url https://localhost/lookupservice/sdk --no-check-cert > /tmp/psc.txt

2. Validate the number of service registrations for each vCenter:

   • less /tmp/psc.txt | grep -i "Service Type: " | sort | uniq -c

   • For an environment with two vCenters in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM), there would be two service registrations for each service. If there are more than two, then these can be potentially stale ones.
3. Identify a valid registration against stale registration using /etc/vmware/install-defaults/vmdir.ldu-guid to compare Node ID from above file (/tmp/psc.txt):
   • For Example:
     • The below service registration belongs to the mentioned Node ID.
               Name: ServiceName
               Description: ServiceDescription
               Service Product: com.vmware.cis
               Service Type: ServiceType
               Service ID: 1f10XX8f-438d-XXb-90f8-47e7d6XXa94f
               Site ID: default-first-site
               Node ID: b2b7XX1e-5XX9-4a55-88XX-699fXXeb1d6f
               Owner ID: [email protected]
               Version: 1.0
               Endpoints:
                       Type: com.vmware.cis.data.provider
                       Protocol: vmomi
                       URL: https://vcsa.example.org:443/sdk
                       SSL trust: 
                       Endpoint Attributes:
                               cis.common.ep.localurl: http://localhost:11080/sdk
               Attributes:
                       com.vmware.cis.cm.HostId: 603b3XX1-fXXb-4XX2-aXX5-81517XX8f47a
   • The Node ID should match the entry in /etc/vmware/install-defaults/vmdir.ldu-guid.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

Improper decommissioning of external PSC or vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM).

Resolution

Follow the below steps to remove the stale service registrations from vCenter.

1. 1. Shut down all the vCenter nodes in ELM and take a powered-off snapshot from each vCenter VM.
   2. Power on all the vCenters.
   3. Log in to any one of the vCenter's SSH session.
   4. Validate the incorrect node by checking the URL from the service registration output.
   5. Note down the Node ID for the incorrect service registration.
   6. Run the attached script attached to this KB.
      • Steps to run the script:
        • ./service_unregister_stalenode.sh <Node_ID of stale node>
          • Example: ./service_unregister_stalenode.sh b2b7641e-5XX9-4a55-8XX9-699fd9XX1d6f
        • You will be prompted for the username/password.
          • The username would be administrator@<sso-domain>, by default it's [email protected]
   7. Validate the stale service registrations have been removed successfully.

Additional Information

Note: This script will not remove service registrations that do not have node IDs; example: sso:groupcheck, sso:admin.

These services can be unregistered using jXplorer or by following the steps mentioned in Error: "Could not connect to one or more vCenter Server Systems" in the vSphere Client