vSphere Web Client becomes unresponsive after upgrading the vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3b (8.0.3.00200)

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

This issue can display in a variety of symptoms, which will usually occur after an extended period of idleness of the session (1-2 hours)

• After upgrading vCenter Server to 8.0.3.00200, the vSphere client becomes unstable and session timeouts occur.
• The loading circle indicator will continually spin.
• Browsing the inventory may error with errors such as "You have no privileges to view this object or it is deleted"
• When attempting to log into the client, the login button may be greyed out.
• Authentication may fail with the following error:

An error occurred while fetching identity providers

Environment

vCenter Server 8.0.3.00200

Cause

This issue is due to a change in the default behavior of RECYCLE_FACADES within Tomcat in the release. 

Resolution

Broadcom is working towards a permanent fix for this issue.

To work around this issue, use the steps below to disable RECYCLE_FACADES.

1. Login to the vCenter Server with SSH.
   
   
2. Create a backup of the catalina.properties file.
   
   cp /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/catalina.properties /root/catalina.properties.bak
   
   
3. Run the following command to add a line to the end of the original catalina.properties file to disable RECYCLE_FACADES.
   
   echo "org.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES=false" >> /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-ui/server/conf/catalina.properties
   
   
4. Restart the vsphere-ui service with the below command.
   
   service-control --restart vsphere-ui