Snapshot deletion jobs in Automation Central fails with "Internal Error: Failed to retrieve vim client"

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• Automation Central jobs configured to delete snapshots in VCF Operations fail with the error: "Internal Error: Failed to retrieve vim client".
  
• You might see similar errors in the /storage/log/vcops/log/actions-data-<UUID>.log file
  
  INFO  actions-data #### [ops@#### threadId="######" threadName="TasksManager-ResponseHandler-###"] [com.vmware.vcops.controller.data.utils.action.ActionLogUtil.logJobContext] - Action Result:[JobContext{jobId='#######-####-#####-#######', jobName='Delete Unused Snapshots for VM - Remove Snapshots', jobState=FAILED, objectId=[<VM-Object-ID>], objectName=[<VM Name>], actionAdapterKind='VMWARE', targetAdapterKind='VMWARE', resourceKind='VirtualMachine', submittedBy='<user>', authSource='LOCAL', jobContextEntryList=[JobContextEntry{entryDate="", completionDate="", entryKind='ActionExecutionResult', entryState=FAILED, stampedInfoMessages=[], stampedWarningMessages=[], stampedErrorMessages=[StampedMessage{fractionalSecs='.012000', timeStamp="", message='Internal Error: Failed to retrieve vim client'}], asyncStatuses=[], actionReturnResults=null, resourceUUid='null'}
  
  
• You might see similar errors in the /storage/log/vcops/log/analytics<UUID>.log file for that specific Job_ID.
  
  ERROR analytics ### [ops@#### threadId="######" threadName="pool-##-thread-##"] [com.vmware.vcops.analytics.action.schedule.ActionScheduler.run] - Failed to find vm '<VM_ID>' in job context entries.

Environment

VCF Operations 9.x
Aria Operations 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to an incorrect scope selection when configuring the Automation Central job.

When configuring the job, the object selected in the "select an Object" tab  step must adhere to a strict hierarchy rule:

• The selected object must be either the same object type as the object the action is intended for.

• OR, it must be an ancestor object (a container object higher in the hierarchy) of the object type selected in the previous step.

VCF Operations ignores object types that violate this rule. These invalid object types can include objects of descendant types, objects from a different management pack/solution, or objects from an unrelated object hierarchy. 

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must re-configure the snapshot deletion job in Automation Central with the correct scope selection that follows the required object hierarchy:

1. Locate the failed snapshot deletion job in Automation Central.

2. Edit the job configuration.

3. In the "select an Object" step, ensure the chosen object is either:

   • The same object type as the target object (e.g., if deleting a snapshot on a Virtual Machine, select Virtual Machine related object type itself).

   • An ancestor object (a parent container) of the target object.

Example: If the action is configured to run on a Virtual Machine, and in the previous step, you selected a Host System, you must change the scope selection to:

• A Host System object (same object type).

• OR an object that is higher in the hierarchy (e.g., Cluster Compute Resources, Datacenter, vCenter Server).

Additional Information

Refer to the Create Job from Automation Central documentation for more information