Error: 408 OK Cannot establish a remote console connection in Aria Automation

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to open a remote console connection to a Virtual Machine in Aria Automation, the connection fails with a banner error:
  • Error: 408 OK Cannot establish a remote console connection. Verify that the machine is powered on. If the server has a self-signed certificate, you might need to accept the certificate, then close and retry the connection.
  • The blue text links to the Aria Automation base URL
• Browser dev tools & log messages indicate that the connection was established successfully
• WebMKS tickets are used for the connection. This is the only remote console connection method allowed with vSphere 8.x
• The certificates are valid and the resolution from KB 374614 has already been performed.
• The key log entry is this timeout in provisioning-service-app.log at the time when the banner error above is shown:
  • [vRA host: automation.example.com communicating with vCenter Host: wss://esx-host.example.com:443/ticket/#########]: Exception [connection timed out after 30000 ms: esx-host.example.com/##.##.##.##:443] received while processing vCenter communication.

Environment

• VMware Aria Automation 8.x
• VMware vSphere 8.x / 7.x
• VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x

Cause

Port 443 is blocked between the Aria Automation nodes and the ESXi hosts. Aria Automation proxies the remote console session over TCP 443; therefore, bi-directional communication on this port is required.

Resolution

1. Verify network connectivity between all Aria Automation appliances and the ESXi management IP addresses.
2. Ensure Port 443 (HTTPS) is open on any intervening firewalls.
3. Test connectivity from an Aria Automation node using: 
   • curl -kv telnet://<ESXi_IP>:443

For further assistance, see Contact Support.