VCF Installer 9.0 validation fails at VMFS FC Datastore with error - A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the service provider and provide the reference token.

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• VCF Installer 9.0 validation fails at VMFS FC Datastore with error

  A problem has occurred on the server. Please retry or contact the service provider and provide the reference token

   

• VCF Installer 9.0 validation fails with below error

  VCF Automation IP Pool should have exactly two entries for Standard deployment and four entries for High Availability.

   

• Error in /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log

  ERROR [vcf_dm,68#######################f7,1e6a] [c.v.e.s.o.model.error.ErrorFactory,dm-exec-23]  [9###4] VCF_ERROR_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR Invocation of prefix '' part of task ValidateVmfsFcDatastoreEligibilityAction in plugin ValidationPlugin failed with exception.
  com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.core.error.InternalServerErrorException: Invocation of prefix '' part of task ValidateVmfsFcDatastoreEligibilityAction in plugin ValidationPlugin failed with exception.
          
  Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.util.List.size()" because the return value of "com.vmware.vcf.rest.api.model.v1.sddcs.VcfAutomationSpec.getIpPool()" is null
          at com.vmware.evo.sddc.validation.action.ValidateVmfsFcDatastoreEligibilityAction.execute(ValidateVmfsFcDatastoreEligibilityAction.java:64)
          

Environment

VCF Installer 9.0

 

Cause

IP Pool is missing in VCF Automation spec. IP Pool is required to calculate the VCF Automation node size

Resolution

Broadcom Engineering is aware of this issue and will be resolved in future VCF Installer release.

 

Workaround: 

Manually add the IP Pool information to the VcfAutomationSpec JSON file. This ensures that the validation for the VMFS FC Datastore passes successfully during the deployment

Follow the below steps

1. Download JSON spec under "Validate & Deploy" from VCF Installer
   
   
   
   
2. Close the Deployment Wizard UI by clicking "Save and close"
3. On the VCF Installer home page, click on "Cancel Progress"
4. Open the downloaded json file with a notepad, modify the vcfAutomationSpec and include ipPool
   
   Sample spec file

   "vcfAutomationSpec":{
   "ipPool": ["<Any free IP in same subnet as vcfautomation node ip>", "<Any free IP in same subnet as vcfautomation node ip>"],
   "hostname": "<vcf-automation_fqdn>",
   "useExistingDeployment": true,
   "sslThumbprint": "<thumbprint of vcf-automation node in sha256 format>",
   "adminUserPassword": "<admin password for vcf-automation>"
   }

   
   
   
5. On the VCF Installer UI select "DEPLOY USING JSON SPEC"
6. Click "CHOOSE FILE" and select the modified json file from Step # 4
7. Proceed with the next step to validate & deploy

Validation should complete successfully now