Custom tag category assignments to exclude datastores for VCLS do not persist across vCenter reboot or vpxd restart

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

In version 7.0.3 and later, restarting the VPXD service or VC reboot results in the loss of any custom tag categories added to the cluster configuration through the dsTagCategoriesToExclude API. 

This issue may impact your ability to manage tag exclusions effectively.

API: ClusterSystemVMsConfigSpec(vim.cluster.SystemVMsConfigSpec)

Environment

vCenter Server 7.0.3

Cause

Currently, when the VPXD service is restarted, any custom tag categories added to the cluster configuration under systemVMsConfig.dsTagCategoriesToExclude are lost.
This occurs because this information is not stored in the vCenter Server Database, resulting in a lack of persistence for these configurations.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution.

Workaround 1: 

To persist across reboot or vpxd restart, use notAllowedDatastores list instead of dsTagCategoriesToExclude for managing custom tag categories in the cluster configuration.

Workaround 2: 

If dsTagCategoriesToExclude is required, the category "SRM-com.vmware.vcDr:::status" along with "test" tag should be used instead of a custom tag-category to ensure that the configuration remains persistent across reboots.

Additional Information

vSphere 8.0 Update 3 introduces a redesign of vCLS to Embedded vCLS, which utilizes vSphere Pod technology. Deployment and lifecycle of these VMs are managed within ESXi and are no longer managed by the vSphere ESX Agent Manager (EAM)

Release notes: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-803-release-notes/index.html