Failed to register remote plugin on VC error occurs when configuring the lookup service for VMware Cloud Director Availability

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• When configuring the lookup service for a VMware Cloud Director Availability (vCDA) on-premise appliance or a vCDA vSphere DR appliance, an error occurs stating the the vCDA plugin fails to install with vCenter.
• Errors similar to the following occur in the /opt/vmware/h4/replicator/log/replicator.log, for an on-premise appliance, or the /opt/vmware/h4/manager/log/manager.log, for a vSphere DR provider appliance:
  
  

  2024-12-16 10:36:16.458 ERROR - [UI-########-####-####-####-############-####-##] [https-jsse-nio-8441-exec-3] c.v.h.c.s.BaseVsphereUiPluginInstaller   : Failed to register remote plugin on VC: https://<vCenter address>:443/sdk

  com.vmware.exception.ConnectTimeout: https://sdkTunnel:8089 invocation failed with "org.apache.http.conn.ConnectTimeoutException: Connect to <vCenter address>:80 [<vCenter address>/##.##.##.##] failed: Connect timed out"
...
Caused by: com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.exception.ConnectionException: https://sdkTunnel:8089 invocation failed with "org.apache.http.conn.ConnectTimeoutException: Connect to <vCenter address>:80 [<vCenter address>/##.##.##.##] failed: Connect timed out"
        at com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.common.impl.ResponseImpl.setError(ResponseImpl.java:261)
        ... 140 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.apache.http.conn.ConnectTimeoutException: Connect to <vCenter address>:80 [<vCenter address>/##.##.##.##] failed: Connect timed out
...

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Cause

VMware Cloud Director Availability performs SDK interactions with the underlying vCenter server on port 443. However, there are circumstances where the environment or the vCenter server causes SDK connections to connect to another port outside the required ports documented for vCDA. For example, this can occur if vCenter is using custom ports or cannot accept connections on the default HTTPS port (443).

Resolution

1. In the error message, identify the address and port that is currently experiencing timeouts. In the following example, it would be port 80:
   
   ...
com.vmware.exception.ConnectTimeout: https://sdkTunnel:8089 invocation failed with "org.apache.http.conn.ConnectTimeoutException: Connect to <vCenter address>:80 [<vCenter address>/##.##.##.##] failed: Connect timed out"
...
   
   
2. Open the port in the firewall to permit traffic between the vCDA appliance and the vCenter server using the address.