Error: "Unable to authenticate" when accessing the Operation Manager plugin in VMware Cloud Director (vCD)

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)
• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

The VMware Cloud Director (vCD) tenant portal becomes inaccessible when attempting to load the Aria Operations plugin.

• The browser displays the error message:

  "The webpage at (URL) might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address"

• The tenant portal displays an explicit authentication failure:

  "Unable to authenticate."

Environment

VMware Cloud Director:  10.5.x and 10.6.x
VMware Aria Operations: 8.17.x and 8.18.x

Resolution

1. The plugin requires the Aria Operations certificate to be added to vCD to function.
   
   
2. Check if System access URL global setting is configured properly in Aria Ops. This is used by external systems (VCD in this case) on what particular endpoint of Aria Ops to be used for communication. Use the FQDN as updated in Aria Operations certificate. 

    3. Re-register the vCD adapter instance.

        a. Navigate to Data Sources > Integration > vCD Adapter instance.
        b. Edit the vCD adapter instance.
        c. Click Manage Registration, then enter credentials to unregister Aria Operations from vCD.
        d. Once unregistered, click Manage Registration again and enter credentials to re-register Aria Operations with vCD. 

Note: Whenever the System Access URL is modified, the VCD adapter instance must be re-registered to republish the plugin successfully.