NTP configuration fails in SDDC due to ESXi host DNS name mismatch

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

NTP configuration through SDDC Manager fails with the error:  "Failed to validate NTP configuration. Validate input specification as new NtpConfiguration to VMware Cloud Foundations."

 

Via API:

Message: Error occurred while validating details of entities.
Remediation Message: Please make sure all the entities are reachable and ACTIVE.

/var/log/vmware/vcf/operartionsmanager/operationsmanager.log

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_om,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,zzzz] [c.v.v.s.s.v.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator,om-exec-18] Error occurred while checking the maintenance mode state for the host <ESXi Host FQDN>.
com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.error.SystemConfiguratorException: Host <ESXi Host FQDN> is in MAINTENANCE mode
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.checkHostMaintenanceMode(SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.java:389)
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.validate(SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.java:108)
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfigurationsValidator.lambda$validateEntitiesState$0(SystemConfigurationsValidator.java:111)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncSupply.run(CompletableFuture.java:1768)
        at com.vmware.vcf.common.tracing.TraceRunnable.run(TraceRunnable.java:59)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_om,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,zzzz] [c.v.v.s.s.v.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator,om-exec-18] Entity state validation failed
com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.error.SystemConfiguratorException: Error occurred while checking the maintenance mode state for the host <ESXi Host FQDN>.
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.checkHostMaintenanceMode(SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.java:413)
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.validate(SystemConfiguratorEntitiyStateValidator.java:108)
        at com.vmware.vcf.systemconfigurator.services.validators.SystemConfigurationsValidator.lambda$validateEntitiesState$0(SystemConfigurationsValidator.java:111)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncSupply.run(CompletableFuture.java:1768)
        at com.vmware.vcf.common.tracing.TraceRunnable.run(TraceRunnable.java:59)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS DEBUG [vcf_om,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,zzzz] [c.v.v.s.u.SystemConfigErrorLocalizationUtil,om-exec-18] Locale from LocaleContextHolder - en_US

Cause

This issue occurs due to a mismatch between the DNS name of the ESXi host recorded in SDDC Manager and the DNS name actually configured on the ESXi host.

Resolution

• ESXi hostname check:
  • From ESXi CLI
    • esxcli system hostname get
  • From ESXi mob
    • Enable Mob for the ESXi host - The Managed Object Browser is disabled by default in vSphere 6.x
    • https://<ESXi FQDN>/mob/?moid=ha-searchindex&method=findByDnsName
      •        datacenter - empty
              dnsName - <ESXi FQDN>
               vmSearch - false
  • From SDDC Manager
    • Inventory>Hosts>All Hosts>FQDN

 

• Find the mismatch and update on the ESXi host by running,
  • esxcli system hostname set --hostname <ESXi FQDN as per SDDC>

 

• Re-configure the NTP:
  • Option 1:
    • Configure NTP via SDDC Manager UI
      • Administration>Network Settings>NTP Configuration>Edit
  • Option 2:
    • Configure NTP via API
      • Developer Center>/v1/system/ntp-configuration
      • Create a JSON specification with the following content in a text editor.
        • {
    "ntpServers": [
        {
            "ipAddress": "<ntp fqdn/ip>"
        }
    ]
}
      • Execute

Additional Information

NTP configuration may also fail if SDDC Manager is unable to validate the maintenance mode state of hosts that are already in maintenance mode. In such cases, identify the host from the logs, exit it from maintenance mode, and then reconfigure NTP.