Deployment of VCF Automation failed with the following error: "Error occurred while updating the VCFA admin account password."

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

The installation workflow in the VCF installer failed during the "Retrieve the status of VCF Automation Deployment request" step with the following error:

Request createenvironment failed with error cause
[
  {
    "messageId": "LCMVCFA00014",
    "message": "LCMVCFA00014",
    "eventId": "<UUID>",
    "retry": true,
    "exceptionMessage": "Error occurred while updating VCFA admin account password",
    "exceptionStackTrace": "java.lang.RuntimeException: Error occurred while updating VCFA admin account password
                              at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vcfa.driver.rest.util.VcfaEndpointRestUtil.updateAdminPwdById(VcfaEndpointRestUtil.java:214)
                              at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vcfa.plugin.tasks.VcfaUpdateAdminPwdTask.execute(VcfaUpdateAdminPwdTask.java:71)
                              at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.automata.core.TaskThread.run(TaskThread.java:62)
                              at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
                              at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
                              at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
    

The VCF Operations Fleet Management Appliance journal logs show entries similar to the following:

"YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS.xxxZ INFO vrlcm[1239] [pool-3-thread-46] [c.v.v.l.v.d.r.u.VcfaEndpointRestUtil]  -- Response of update admin pwd :: {
  "statusCode" : 400,
  "responseMessage" : "{\"minorErrorCode\":\"BAD_REQUEST\",\"message\":\"Bad request: Password YXYXYXYX be between 15 and 128 characters long and contain 1 of each of the following: lowercase letter, uppercase letter, digit, special character

 

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.X

VMware Cloud Foundation Automation 9.X

Cause

The password does not meet the requirements.

While the VCF Installer GUI shows a minimum length of 8 characters, the actual requirement is at least 15 characters.

Please refer to the VCF Planning and Preparation Workbook for detailed password requirements.

Resolution

1. Create a snapshot of the Fleet Management Appliance. 
2. ssh to FleetManagement appliance as root.
3. Obtain the vmid for VCFA admin account:
   # curl -k -H 'Content-Type:text/plain' -u "admin@local" -X GET https://<fleetmgmtFQDN>/lcm/locker/api/v2/passwords | json_pp
Enter host password for user 'admin@local':{
   "page" : 0,
   "passwords" : [
      {
         "alias" : "Prod Token",
         "createdOn" : ###########,
         "lastUpdatedOn" : ###########,
         "password" : "PASSWORD****",
         "passwordDescription" : "Prod Token",
         "referenced" : true,
         "tenant" : "default",
         "userName" : "",
         "vmid" : "########-####-####-####-############"
         },
4. Decrypt the password.
   # curl -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -u "admin@local" -X POST https://<fleetmgmtFQDN>/lcm/locker/api/v2/passwords/########-####-####-####-############/decrypted -d '{"rootPassword":"<RootPasswordDefinedAtInstall>"}' -o updatepassword.json
Enter host password for user 'admin@local':
5. Update the updatepassword.json file with a password that meets the VCF Automation Password Complexity requirements. (Do not remove the pre-filled content in the json. Update the password section with the new password)
   # vi updatepassword.json
6. Post the updated password. 
   # curl -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -u "admin@local" -X PATCH https://<fleetmgmtFQDN>/lcm/locker/api/v2/passwords/########-####-####-####-############ -d @updatepassword.json
7. Re-try the job.