VMware Cloud Director Appliance Freezing During vApp VM Migration in HA Setup Without Load Balancer

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• VCD Appliance becomes unresponsive during VM migrations between vApps.
• Java Heap Dump indicates memory/resource pressure.
• SSH reboot required to recover.
• No Load Balancer configured in HA environment.
• Persistent log warnings regarding FQDN SAN mismatch in NSX-V certificates.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director

Cause

• In an High Availibility VCD deployment lacking a Load Balancer, all tasks are directed to a single node, resulting in resource saturation and performance degradation.
• Polling from vRealize Operations Manager vROps may exacerbate the issue.
• Unresolved certificate issues with NSX-V further contribute to noise in the logs.

Resolution

• Implement a Load Balancer to distribute tasks evenly across HA nodes - Load Balancing with NSX Data Center for vSphere
  in VMware Cloud Director.
• Perform regular database backups of the active Primary node until the HA configuration is corrected - Backup and Restore of Your VMware Cloud Director
  Appliance.
• Reduce vROps polling frequency if applicable - Reducing CPU load on Cloud Director when integrated with Aria Operations.
• Use IP address instead of FQDN in NSX-V cert configuration to suppress SAN mismatch log warnings - vCenter Server, ESXi and/or NSX are disconnected after a Cloud Director upgrade.