Cloning VM with dynamic directpath IO configured to Content Library fails with a NullPointerException

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

You have a virtual machine configured with a Dynamic Directpath I/O device
You are trying to clone this VM to an OVF template in the vCenter content library
The clone attempt fails with a NullPointerException

When reviewing the content library log (/var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log), you see the following error stack:

2024-07-04T09:54:24.757Z | ERROR  | lula3mir-78113471-auto-1ai8qo-h5:76341855-63-ec | cls-simple-activity-10  | SimpleActivityWorker      | Exception will not be handled by activity ExportSessionActivity (> handle=<redacted>-1993-49d0-b225-<redacted>, entityId=<redacted>-1993-49d0-b225-<redacted>): null
java.lang.NullPointerException: null
at com.vmware.ovf.hardware.convert.HardwareSectionFormatter.buildAllowedDeviceConfigValue(HardwareSectionFormatter.java:1108) ~[ovf-lib-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovf.hardware.convert.HardwareSectionFormatter.handlePCIPassthroughDevices(HardwareSectionFormatter.java:999) ~[ovf-lib-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovf.hardware.convert.HardwareSectionFormatter.run(HardwareSectionFormatter.java:1138) ~[ovf-lib-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovf.hardware.convert.HardwareSectionFormatter.createHardwareSection(HardwareSectionFormatter.java:1151) ~[ovf-lib-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovf.hardware.convert.HardwareSectionCreator.createHardwareSection(HardwareSectionCreator.java:22) ~[ovf-lib-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.handler.HardwareConfigHandler.exportVmToOvf(HardwareConfigHandler.java:680) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.handler.HardwareConfigHandler.exportToOvf(HardwareConfigHandler.java:631) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.handler.HardwareConfigHandler.exportToOvfSync(HardwareConfigHandler.java:617) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.handler.ConfigHandler.exportToOvf(ConfigHandler.java:60) ~[ovfs-internal-types-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.impl.OvfExportImpl.exportToOvf(OvfExportImpl.java:152) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.impl.OvfExportImpl.exportToOvf(OvfExportImpl.java:92) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.ovfs.impl.OvfManagerImpl.createEnvelope(OvfManagerImpl.java:223) ~[ovfs-main-1.0.0.jar:?] at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_351]
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_351]
at com.vmware.vcloud.activity.toolkit.simple.executor.SimpleActivityWorker.executePhase(SimpleActivityWorker.java:358) [activity-framework-toolkit-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.vcloud.activity.toolkit.simple.executor.SimpleActivityWorker.executeActivity(SimpleActivityWorker.java:240) [activity-framework-toolkit-1.0.0.jar:?]
at com.vmware.vcloud.activity.toolkit.simple.executor.SimpleActivityWorker.run(SimpleActivityWorker.java:105) [activity-framework-toolkit-1.0.0.jar:?]
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511) [?:1.8.0_351]
at com.google.common.util.concurrent.TrustedListenableFutureTask$TrustedFutureInterruptibleTask.runInterruptibly(TrustedListenableFutureTask.java:125) [guava-28.2-jre.jar:?]
at com.google.common.util.concurrent.InterruptibleTask.run(InterruptibleTask.java:69) [guava-28.2-jre.jar:?]
at com.google.common.util.concurrent.TrustedListenableFutureTask.run(TrustedListenableFutureTask.java:78) [guava-28.2-jre.jar:?]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149) [?:1.8.0_351]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624) [?:1.8.0_351]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:750) [?:1.8.0_351]
2024-07-04T09:54:24.758Z | ERROR | lula3mir-78113471-auto-1ai8qo-h5:76341855-63-ec | cls-simple-activity-10  | ExportSessionActivity     | OVF export session <redacted>-1993-49d0-b225-<redacted> terminated abnormally.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3

Cause

The vCenter Content Library code currently cannot handle Dynamic Directpath I/O devices.

Any attempts to clone a VM with such a device to a template will fail.

Resolution

Vmware engineering is aware of the issue and is working on providing a fix in a later vSphere version.

To prevent the problem in current versions, please remove any Dynamic Directpath I/O devices before attempting to clone the VM to a template in the Content Library.

Additional Information

For more information about Dynamic Directpath I/O, see: