Unable to sync Aria Orchestrator in Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager environment because the SSH step is failing

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Attempting to do an Inventory Sync on a standalone Aria Orchestrator Deployment results in the following:

Error Code: LCMVRO10037
Failed to SSH into VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator.
Exception occurred while importing VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator host.
 
java.lang.NullPointerException
 at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.drivers.vro.helpers.VroImportUtil.getVsphereHost_Above8130(VroImportUtil.java:405)
 at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.drivers.vro.helpers.VroImportUtil.getVroProductDetails(VroImportUtil.java:710)
 at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.drivers.vro.task.VroImportEnvironmentTask.execute(VroImportEnvironmentTask.java:197)
 at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.platform.automata.service.Task.retry(Task.java:158)
 at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.automata.core.TaskThread.run(TaskThread.java:60)
 at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
 at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
 at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

SSH to the host works fine from the Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager Suite appliance.

Environment

Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.18.0 (Product Support Pack 3)
Aria Orchestrator 8.18.1

Cause

Lines just above the error message in the vmware_vrlcm.log show:

2025-02-04T20:15:55.728Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.u.SshUtils]  -- Command: vracli vro authentication
2025-02-04T20:15:55.728Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.u.SshUtils]  -- ------------------------------------------------------
2025-02-04T20:16:13.279Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.u.SshUtils]  -- exit-status: 0
2025-02-04T20:16:13.279Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.u.SshUtils]  -- Command executed sucessfully
2025-02-04T20:16:13.280Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.u.SshUtils]  -- Command execution response: {
  "exitStatus" : 0,
  "outputData" : "No authentication provider configured.\n",
  "errorData" : null,
  "commandTimedOut" : false
}
2025-02-04T20:16:13.281Z INFO vrlcm[1100] [pool-3-thread-24] [c.v.v.l.c.l.MaskingPrintStream]  -- * SYSOUT/SYSERR CAPTURED:  -- com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException: Unrecognized token 'No': was expecting (JSON String, Number, Array, Object or token 'null', 'true' or 'false')
 at [Source: (String)"No authentication provider configured."; line: 1, column: 3]
...

Resolution

SSH into the Aria Orchestrator appliance and configure the desired authentication provider:

root@aria_orchestrator_host [ ~ ]# vracli vro authentication set -p vsphere -hn https://<SSO vCenter URL> -u <vcenter sso login administrator> --tenant vsphere.local --admin-group <desired admin group> --admin-group-domain <desired SSO domain, example: vsphere.local>

After successful CLI configuration completes, the vracli vro authentication command will return a json value as expected, and the inventory sync workflow will progress.