vApp template replications do not start new protections when tracking the source template for changes

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• When the Track source for changes option for vApp template protections is enabled a new protection for the latest version of the source template is not created in VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA).
• Without the new protection the automatic migrate behaviour does not recover the latest version of the template into the destination site.
• In the /opt/vmware/h4/cloud/log/cloud.log file on the destination Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, you see entries similar to:
  
  2024-07-01 20:16:24.648 DEBUG - [6a3b5735-2e0c-4d69-a283-f8c1c4f9f6a6] [c4-scheduler-4] c.v.h.c.s.VappSettingsRefreshService     : Collecting settings from site <site name> for 0 vApps and 723 catalog items (holding the vApp templates).

...

2024-07-01 20:21:25.070  WARN - [6a3b5735-2e0c-4d69-a283-f8c1c4f9f6a6] [c4-scheduler-4] com.vmware.task.rest.client.TaskPoller   : The running task: 4e2a11ff-0ecb-47ae-a592-d5fc086857f0 has timed out after 300000 msec
2024-07-01 20:21:25.070 ERROR - [6a3b5735-2e0c-4d69-a283-f8c1c4f9f6a6] [c4-scheduler-4] com.vmware.task.rest.client.TaskPoller   : Task with id 4e2a11ff-0ecb-47ae-a592-d5fc086857f0 timed out.
2024-07-01 20:21:25.070 ERROR - [6a3b5735-2e0c-4d69-a283-f8c1c4f9f6a6] [c4-scheduler-4] c.v.h.c.s.VappSettingsRefreshService     : Failed to retrieve vApp settings from site <site name>

com.vmware.h4.api.error.exceptions.TaskMonitoringTimeOutException: Assuming task '4e2a11ff-0ecb-47ae-a592-d5fc086857f0' failed, because its status did not update in a timely fashion.
        at com.vmware.task.rest.client.TaskPoller.waitForTask(TaskPoller.java:173)
        at com.vmware.h4.cloud.client.CloudTaskPoller.waitForTask(CloudTaskPoller.java:49)
        at com.vmware.h4.cloud.service.VappSettingsRefreshService.getSettingsFromPeer(VappSettingsRefreshService.java:138)
        ...

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to a pagination issue in the VMware Cloud Director Availability code and can arise when a large number of vApp template protections are active.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround

To work around this issue, update the query page value and VMware Cloud Director (VCD) vApp settings timeout value in the destination site.

Note: This procedure modifies a configuration file. Ensure to take a backup of the file before proceeding.

1. SSH to the destination Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance and log in as root.
2. Navigate to the Cloud Service configuration directory:
   
   cd /opt/vmware/h4/cloud/config
   
   
3. Stop the Cloud Service:
   
   systemctl stop cloud.service
   
   
4. Take a backup of the application.properties file:
   
   cp application.properties appliaction.properties.<YYY-MM-DD>.bak
   
   
5. Edit the application.properties file with a text editor:
   
   vi application.properties
   
   
6. Search for the line spring.jpa.query.limit and increase the value to a number larger than the amount of incoming vApp template protections with source tracking enabled.
   
   Example: If you have around 800 vApp template protections active with source tracking enabled you can set the value to:
   spring.jpa.query.limit=1000
   
   
7. Search for the line vcd.vapp.settings.timeout, uncomment it and double the timeout so the line looks like:
   
   vcd.vapp.settings.timeout=600000
   
   
8. Save the changes to the application.properties file.
9. Restart the Cloud Service:
   
   systemctl start cloud.service

Additional Information

When configuring a large number of vApp template protections, it can also be helpful to scale up the destination VMware Cloud Director Availability instance for increased performance.

For more information, see How to scale up Cloud Director Availability 4.x for large scale environments.