Restore of a VCSA 8.0 U3 from an encrypted file-based backup fails with an error after entering the encryption password "error in method invocation list index out of range"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• VCSA restore from encrypted file-based backup fails with an error after entering the encryption password:

error in method invocation list index out of range

• when reviewing the appliance management service log, /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/applmgmt.log in the VCSA that was supposed to be the restore target, the following error stack can be seen:

  <timstamp> [9647]ERROR:vmware.appliance.vapi.impl:pint.Error('com.vmware.applmgmt.err_precheck_failed', 'Precheck failed: Internal Error. Please check the logs for details. https://%(0)s/appliance/support-bundle', **{})
  <timstamp> [9647]ERROR:vmware.vapi.provider.local:Error in invoking com.vmware.appliance.recovery.restore in validate - list index out of range
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/impl.py", line 521, in getRestoreDispatchObject
  dispatch = CreateDispatchObject(piece, logger)
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/util/Common.py", line 896, in CreateDispatchObject
  dispatch = dispatchMod.Dispatch(piece.location,
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/plugins/backupRestoreDispatch.py", line 60, in __init__
  self.storageIO = CreateStorageIOObject(loc, locUser, locPass)
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/plugins/StorageIOLibFactory.py", line 23, in CreateStorageIOObject
  return SftpStorageIO(base_loc, user, passwd, proxy_url)
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/plugins/SftpStorageIOLib.py", line 95, in __init__
  self._setupPasswordlessTunnel(user, passwd)
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/plugins/SftpStorageIOLib.py", line 109, in _setupPasswordlessTunnel
  self._addHostToKnownhosts()
  File "/usr/lib/applmgmt/backup_restore/py/vmware/appliance/backup_restore/plugins/SftpStorageIOLib.py", line 218, in _addHostToKnownhosts
  hashed_keys = check_output(get_public_ssh_keys)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py", line 421, in check_output
  return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py", line 526, in run
  raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
  subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['ssh-keyscan', '-p', '22', '-H', '<backup-server-FQDN>']' returned non-zero exit status 1.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.3

Resolution

This issue is fixed in vCenter Server 8.0 Update 3e, see https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/release-notes/vcenter-server-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-vcenter-server-80u3e-release-notes.html, quote:

Description: SFTP backups might fail to establish a connection with the backup server. In the applmgmt.log/backup.log, you see an error such as:"Command '['ssh-keyscan', '-p', 'port'', '-H', 'hostname']' returned non-zero exit status 1."
This issue is resolved in this release.