VCF Brownfield import failing with error: Cannot invoke "java util/Collection.toArray()" because "c" is null

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• During Brownfield import operation, deploy NSX-T task fails with error,
  

  Description

  Generate NSX Input for configuring VLAN backed NSX

  Progress Messages

  A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the service provider and provide the reference token
Massage: A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the
service provider and provide the reference token.
Remediation Mossage:
Reference Tomer 3C1IR7
Cause: Cannot invoke "java util/Collection.toArray()" because "c" is null

• In /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log you will see similar entries,
  
  

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm] [ErrorFactory] [1HN8AQ] VCF_ERROR_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR Invocation of task PrepareNsxDeployInputAction in plugin ViDomainServicePlugin failed with exception.
com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.core.error.InternalServerErrorException: Invocation of task PrepareNsxDeployInputAction in plugin ViDomainServicePlugin failed with exception.
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.invokeMethod(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:447)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.processTask(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:520)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.accept(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:124)
at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor459.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.invokeSubscriberMethod(Subscriber.java:85)
at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.lambda$dispatchEvent$0(Subscriber.java:71)
at com.vmware.vcf.common.tracing.TraceRunnable.run(TraceRunnable.java:59)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.util.Collection.toArray()" because "c" is null
at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.addAll(ArrayList.java:670)
at com.vmware.vcf.vimanager.fsm.actions.PrepareNsxDeployInputAction$NsxManagerDeploymentInfo.generateNsxDeploymentConfig(PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.java:855)
at com.vmware.vcf.vimanager.fsm.actions.PrepareNsxDeployInputAction$NsxManagerDeploymentInfo.<init>(PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.java:785)
at com.vmware.vcf.vimanager.fsm.actions.PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.execute(PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.java:230)
at com.vmware.vcf.vimanager.fsm.actions.PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.execute(PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.java:108)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionState.invoke(FsmActionState.java:62)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:159)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:144)
at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.invokeMethod(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:400)
... 11 common frames omitted

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS DEBUG [vcf_dm] [ProcessingTaskSubscriber] Collected errors for task PrepareNsxDeployInputAction with ID <task_id>: [ExecutionError [errorCode=null, errorResponse=LocalizableErrorResponse(messageBundle=com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.core.error.messages)]]

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS DEBUG [vcf_dm] Invoking task PrepareNsxDeployInputAction.UNDO Description: Generate NSX Input Data, Plugin: ViDomainServicePlugin, Input map: {nsxPresent=nsxPresent, nsxDeploySpec=nsxDeploySpec}, Id: <task_id> ...

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.x

Cause

• This is due to missing NTP configuration on SDDC manager during .
  
  
• Missing NTP configuration will look similar to,
   
  • curl -s http://localhost/inventory/system-info | json_pp      
    
    You will notice output similar to,
    
    {
"dnsInfo" : {
"rootDomain" : "XYZ",
"subDomain" : "XYZ.com"
},
"id" : "#######################",
"ntpInfo" : {}        <-- Missing NTP
    }
    
    

Resolution

Redeploy SDDC Manager and update bring-up specification to include NTP configuration.

Additional Information

Convert or Import the vSphere Environment into the SDDC Manager Inventory