vCenter vpxd service crashes when Kubernetes Cluster API is used to do a combination VM clone and configure operation

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• A direct clone of a VM is successful.
• A manual deployment of a VM is successful.
• The issue is only happening when the Cluster API is used to do a combination VM clone and configure operation.

When the vpxd service crashes, a core dump file (example - core.vpxd-worker.#######) is created in /var/core/ on the vCenter.

Environment

• vCenter 8.x
• vCenter 9.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to a  combination of VM clone and configure operation causing the vpxd service to crash.

Resolution

To isolate Cluster API operation

1. Do a simple clone operation (no changes to the VM device/disk properties)

2. Once the step 1 simple clone completes, perform the configuration changes on the cloned VM