License inventory not populated in vSphere Client in vCenter Server 8.0

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When adding a license to a vSphere environment using vSphere Client (Administration → Licensing → Licenses → ADD), the page remains empty.
• In /var/log/vmware/vsphere-ui/logs/vsphere_client_virgo.log entries can be found similar to:

  <timestamp> [ERROR] -nio com.vmware.vise.mvc.exception.GlobalExceptionHandler Exception handled while processing request for /ui/data/propertiesByFilter?properties=license&resourceModels=License: java.lang.RuntimeException: com.vmware.license.client.cis.util.LicensingMethodFault: Authentication result: Missing session auth data
          at com.vmware.vise.data.adapters.risetovise.RiseToViseResult.toRuntimeException(RiseToViseResult.java:177)
  
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 WARN common.vmomi.authn.impl.SsoAuthenticatorImpl authenticate: Session auth data not set in request: sessionNonce: '########-####-####-####-############' sessionUser: '' requestUri: '/ls/sdk' requestContext: '{operationID=LicenseClientInit-###}'
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 INFO vim.vmomi.server.impl.ValidatorFutureImpl Validation failed for 1: Authentication result: Missing session auth data (com.vmware.vim.binding.cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault)
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 WARN common.vmomi.authn.impl.SsoAuthenticatorImpl authenticate: Session auth data not set in request: sessionNonce: '########-####-####-####-############' sessionUser: '' requestUri: '/ls/sdk' requestContext: '{operationID=LicenseClientInit-###}'
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 INFO vim.vmomi.server.impl.ValidatorFutureImpl Validation failed for 2: Authentication result: Missing session auth data (com.vmware.vim.binding.cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault)
  <timestamp> jaeger.RemoteReporter-QueueProcessor INFO io.jaegertracing.internal.reporters.RemoteReporter FlushCommand is working again!
  <timestamp> invocation-vmomi-executor-1 operationID=LicenseClientInit-### INFO server.core.oldmanagement.vmomi.LicenseManagerMoImpl getEvaluation
  <timestamp> invocation-vmomi-executor-1 operationID=LicenseClientInit-### INFO server.common.provider.impl.EnvoyEndpointsProviderImpl Retrieved endpoint: localhost:1080/sso-adminserver/system-sdk

• /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd-<number>.log has entries like:

  <timestamp> info vpxd[2716973] [Originator@ sub=vmomi.soapStub[251178]] SOAP request returned HTTP failure; <<cs p:00007fac300021d0, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>, method: exportManagementData; code: 500(Internal Server Error); fault: (cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault) {
  -->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  -->    faultMessage = <unset>
  -->    msg = "Received SOAP response fault from [<<cs p:00007fac300021d0, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>]: exportManagementData
  --> Authentication result: Missing session auth data"
  --> }
  <timestamp> info vpxd[2716973] [Originator@ sub=vmomi.soapStub[251178]] SOAP request returned HTTP failure; <<cs p:00007fac300021d0, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>, method: querySystemTime; code: 500(Internal Server Error); fault: (cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault) {
  -->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
  -->    faultMessage = <unset>
  -->    msg = "Received SOAP response fault from [<<cs p:00007fac300021d0, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>]: querySystemTime
  --> Authentication result: Missing session auth data"
  --> }

• The license service itself reports in /var/log/vmware/cis-license/license.log:

  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 WARN common.vmomi.authn.impl.SsoAuthenticatorImpl authenticate: Session auth data not set in request: sessionNonce: '########-####-####-####-############' sessionUser: '' requestUri: '/ls/sdk' requestContext: '{operationID=}'
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 INFO vim.vmomi.server.impl.ValidatorFutureImpl Validation failed for 193400: Authentication result: Missing session auth data (com.vmware.vim.binding.cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault)
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 WARN common.vmomi.authn.impl.SsoAuthenticatorImpl authenticate: Session auth data not set in request: sessionNonce: '########-####-####-####-############' sessionUser: '' requestUri: '/ls/sdk' requestContext: '{operationID=}'
  <timestamp> vmomi-executor-1 INFO vim.vmomi.server.impl.ValidatorFutureImpl Validation failed for 193401: Authentication result: Missing session auth data (com.vmware.vim.binding.cis.license.fault.NotAuthenticatedFault)
  <timestamp> invocation-vmomi-executor-1 operationID= INFO common.vmomi.authn.impl.SsoLoginHelperImpl login: Successfully authenticated 'vpxd-<service_id>@vsphere.local' on session '########-####-####-####-############'

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

This issue is occurs when the token for the license service is no longer valid.
When the token expires, clock tolerance is ignored during token refresh.

Resolution

This issue has been fixed in VMware vCenter 8.0 Update 3g.
As a temporary workaround, restart the vSphere Client service:

1. Open an SSH session with the vCenter Server
2. Login with the root user
3. Run the following command to restart the service:

   # service-control --restart vsphere-ui

Should this issue occur with a vCenter Server version later than 8.0 Update 3g, Contact Support.

Note: If the issue occurs for a single ESXi host, disconnecting and reconnecting the host via vSphere Client has been reported to fix the issue.