VCF 9.0 vCenter Import precheck is failing with an error "The vCenter Server should not be in ELM for vcenter_fqdn. Remove the vCenter Server from the ELM ring"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• vCenter is a standalone vCenter, not in Enhanced Linked Mode
• In some cases, vCenter was part of ELM in the past
• Importing vCenter to VCF Ops is failing with the error  "The vCenter Server should not be in ELM for <vcenter fqdn>. Remove the vCenter Server from the ELM ring"
• '/usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/vdcrepadmin -f showservers -h localhost -u administrator' command in vCenter Shell shows multiple entries

Environment

• VMware vCenter 9.x
• VCF Ops 9.x

Cause

This error is reported if there is a stale vCenter Domain Controller object in vCenter Directory Database.

Resolution

• If there were one or more vCenters in  ELM in the past and not decommissioned properly, decommission the vCenter to cleanup the stale Nodes.

Ref: Using the cmsso command to unregister vCenter with External PSC or vCenter with Embedded PSC from Single Sign-On

• If this vCenter was not part of ELM in the past and still sees a stale Domain Controller Object in the directory db, remove it manually using jXplorer

Domain Controller Object path is World --> Local --> vSphere --> Domain Controllers (For SSO Domain Name vsphere.local)

Additional Information

Using JXplorer to connect to the vSphere Single Sign-on