VVF 9 (VMware vSphere Foundation) Deployment Fails with “IP is already in Use” Validation Error

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• During deployment of VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF 9), the installer fails at the validation stage with an error - "IP address is already in use" for the VCF Operations Node. This occurs even after changing the IP address assigned to the VCF Installer appliance.
  
  
• Errors in domain manager.log (/var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log)

DEBUG [vcf_om,695e##############b13d,a6c0] [c.v.e.s.e.h.LocalizableRuntimeExceptionHandler,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7300-exec-2] Processing localizable exception Validation of data source of type INTERNAL_MIXED_SDDC_MANAGER
and address <vcfFQDN> failed.
ERROR [vcf_om,695e#################b13d,a6c0] [c.v.e.s.e.h.LocalizableRuntimeExceptionHandler,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7300-exec-2] [GJJEL5] BASELINER_DATASOURCE_VALIDATION_FAILED Validation of data source of type INTERNAL_MIXED_SDDC_MANAGER and address <VCFFQDN> failed.
com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: Validation of data source of type INTERNAL_MIXED_SDDC_MANAGER and address <VCFFQDN>failed.
c.common.validation.errors.messages","validation.taskId":"0a0###2f-9###-17##-81##-99d9#######25"},"message":"Existing vSphere is eligible to be converted to a VCF domain","nestedErrors":[{"errorCode":"VMWARE_COMPONENT_IP_NOT_IN_VC_MGMT_NETWORK.info","arguments":["VCF Operations Node","<VCFFQDN>","1"VcManager vCenter vpxd service is started","remediationMessage":"null"}]},{"errorCode":"BROWNFIELD_VSPHERE_VALIDATION_STATUS.info","arguments":[],"context":{"severity":"INFO","bundleName":"com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.validation.errors.messages","validation.taskId":"0a0####-9##-17##2-8##b-9######0025"},"message":"Existing vSphere is eligible to be converted to a VCF domain","nestedErrors":[{"errorCode":"VMWARE_COMPONENT_IP_NOT_IN_VC_MGMT_NETWORK.info","arguments":["VCF Operations Node","<VCFFQDN>","#.#.#.#","#.#.#.#/24"],"context":{"#.#.#.#","#.#.#.#/24"],"context":{"severity":"INFO","bundleName":"com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.validation.errors.m

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x

Cause

The root cause was a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) reuse conflict. The FQDN of vcf was already assigned to the VCF Installer appliance, which was actively running the deployment wizard.The same FQDN was also configured for the VCF Operations Node during the deployment workflow.

As a result, the FQDN was already resolvable and pingable on the network before deployment began.

Resolution

Assign a unique and dedicated FQDN to the VCF Operations Node that does not overlap with the FQDN used by the VCF Installer appliance.

Steps:

1. Create a new DNS record for the Operations Node.
2. Example: vcfops.local.net. Ensure the new FQDN resolves to the correct, unused IP address in the management network.
3. Update the VCF deployment configuration to use the new FQDN for the Operations Node.
4. Re-run the validation and deployment.

Once a unique FQDN/IP pair was assigned, the validation engine successfully verified network availability and routing.
The deployment proceeded without triggering the INTERNAL_MIXED_SDDC_MANAGER or IP-in-use validation errors.

Additional Information

Japanese KB: “IP is already in Use”のバリデーションエラーでVVF 9 (VMware vSphere Foundation) のデプロイが失敗する