Invalid vApp property(ies) error encountered when attempting to start virtual machine in VMware Cloud Director

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to power on a virtual machine in VMware Cloud Director an error similar to the following occurs:
  
  Invalid vApp property(ies): Zero length BigInteger,Invalid property value for key 'name'. Size is '0' which does not fall within the Min 1 size and Max 65,535 size limit.,Argument '' not a valid IP address.,Zero length BigInteger,Argument '' not a valid IP address.,Argument '' not a valid IP address..
  
  
• The virtual machine has custom vApp properties in the underlying vSphere environment that are required to power on the virtual machine.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.x

Cause

By default, VMware Cloud Director is not configured to supply values for custom vApp properties configured on vSphere virtual machines.

Resolution

If the custom vApp properties are required in vSphere and cannot be removed, the following can be performed to specify values for the properties in VMware Cloud Director (vCD):

1. Open the appropriate tenant in the vCD user interface and navigate to the vApp or to the Virtual Machines tab.
2. Select the virtual machine in question.
3. Navigate to the Guest Properties for the virtual machine.
4. Add values for each of the properties with entries that meet the custom property requirements.