Persistent disk fails to attach in Bosh Director in Tanzu Application Platform

Products

• VMware Tanzu Application Service
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (Core)
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated EditionStarter Pack (Core)
• VMware Tanzu Application Platform

Issue/Introduction

Apply changes on Bosh Director would fail due to the persistent disk attach failure with the below error:

Started deploying
Deleting VM 'vm-cid'... Skipped [VM not found] (00:00:05)
Creating VM for instance 'bosh/0' from stemcell 'sc-id'... Finished (00:00:46)
Waiting for the agent on VM 'vm-cid' to be ready... Finished (00:00:00)
Attaching disk 'disk-id' to VM 'vm-cid'... Failed (00:02:00)
Failed deploying (00:02:59)

Cleaning up rendered CPI jobs... Finished (00:00:00)

Deploying:
Creating instance 'bosh/0':
   Updating instance disks:
     Updating disks:
       Deploying disk:
         Attaching disk in the cloud:
           CPI 'attach_disk' method responded with error: CmdError{"type":"Unknown","message":"Failed to add disk scsi0:2.","ok_to_retry":false}

Exit code 1
===== 2025-10-04 06:55:31 UTC Finished "/usr/local/bin/bosh --no-color --non-interactive --tty create-env /var/tempest/workspaces/default/deployments/bosh.yml"; Duration: 1486s; Exit Status: 1

 

Cause

This can happen if there are multiple instances of Bosh Director VM present on your vCenter and the disk might have been attached to the other instance of Bosh Director.

Multiple instances of Bosh Director can exist during the time of upgrade of if the user interrupts the process and perform some actions manually.

Resolution

Make sure the persistent disk is present on the Datastore, shutdown all the instances of the Bosh Director and then retry the Apply changes from opsman, it will recreate a new VM for the Bosh Director and then detach the persistent disk from the old instance and attach it to the newly created Bosh Director instance.