VCF on VxRail - stretching cluster failed with error - "Validate NSX Connectivity Before starting NSX Network Configuration"

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

This sequence of events can lead to the issue being encountered -

1. Per this documentation, on the SDDC Manager - an initiate_stretch_cluster_vxrail python script is run to initiate the stretch workflow - https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-5-2-and-earlier/5-2/vcf-on-vxrail-complete-5-2/stetching-clusters-vxrail-VxRail/stretch-a-vxrail-cluster-VxRail.html
2. An error is encountered (not necessarily the error in the article title), and the workflow fails.
3. Rather than debugging and fixing the prior error and retrying the failing task from the SDDC Manager UI, as is documented in step 4 of the article above, instead the previously failed task is manually deleted and new workflow is triggered (i.e. the  initiate_stretch_cluster_vxrail python script is run again.

 

The following entries are observed in the /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log file at the time of the failure - 

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sss+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxx] [c.v.v.c.f.p.n.s.s.InventoryMgmtServiceImpl,dm-exec-17]  Host with name xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx not found in inventory
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sss+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxx] [c.v.v.c.f.p.n.p.a.PrepareNsxtInfoFromInventoryAction,dm-exec-17]  UNABLE_TO_GET_INPUT_FOR_NSXT_CONFIGURATION
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.core.error.ErrorCode.provideExtraContextAttributes()" because "errorCode" is null

 

Environment

VCF on VxRail 5.2.x

Cause

The host IDs in the SDDC Manager database are different from the host IDs present in the workflow execution context.

This is due to the previously failing task having been manually deleted and the initiate_stretch_cluster_vxrail python script having been incorrectly triggered a second time, rather than debugging and fixing the prior error and retrying the failing task from the SDDC Manager UI.

Resolution

Please open a case with Broadcom Support for assistance.