Email alert with error 'Failed to collect because of invalid credentials' for Aria Operations endpoint in Usage Meter

Products

• VMware Usage Meter

Issue/Introduction

• User might receive intermittent product metering email alerts for Aria Operations. For ex:
  
  
  
  
• Once Aria Operations endpoint is re-authenticated in Usage Meter or if a reboot is performed for Aria Operations,  it works for some time and then the alert is triggered again. During this stage, you cannot login to Aria Operations UI as well with admin account.
• The following command on Aria Operations node, isolated the 'admin' user account getting locked by external applications(In this scenario: penetration test application):
  
  root@AriaOpsnode [ ~ ]# grep -a /auth\/token\/acquire .* \"username\":\"admin\" /storage/log/vcops/log/http_api.log | awk '{print $11}' | uniq -c
  18 client=IP_Address,
  1 client=IP_Address_1
  48 client=IP_Address_2

Environment

vCloud Usage Meter 4.8
VCF Usage Meter
VMware Aria Operations

Cause

 This issue was a result of Aria Operations admin account getting locked intermittently

Resolution

Aria Operations is integrated to Usage Meter with it's local 'admin' account. To resolve this issue, ensure admin account on Aria Operations is not locked and you can login to Aria Operations UI with admin account.
If the admin account is locked, please follow the instructions provided here vRealize/Aria Operations admin account getting locked .