Installation of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle fails with "Error occurred during updating VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle password" due to stale ARP cache

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

The installation of the Aria Suite Lifecycle via Easy Installer fails with the following error message:
Error occurred during updating VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle password

This indicates that the SSH connection to Aria Suite Lifecycle failed during the installation.

Environment

Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18

Cause

First, verify that no other virtual machine is using the same IP address as the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance. If there is no IP address conflict, the issue may stem from a stale ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) cache on the Windows machine running the installer.

If the IP address assigned to the new Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance was previously used by another virtual machine, the Windows machine may still have the old MAC address mapped to that IP address in its local ARP table. 
As a result, the installer's login attempt (via SSH) is routed to the wrong virtual machine instead of the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance. Since the credentials are not valid on that virtual machine, the operation fails.

 

Resolution

To resolve this issue, clear the ARP cache on the Windows machine and retry the installation after deleting the failed Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance.

1. Identify the correct MAC address of the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance.
   • Via vSphere Client
     • In the vSphere Client, select the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance.
     • Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. Expand the Network adapter section and note the MAC Address.
   • Via Console
     • Open the Web Console or VMRC for the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance.
     • Log in as root.
     • Run ip addr show to see the link/ether address.
2. Check the ARP entry on the Windows machine running the Easy Installer. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following command:

   arp -a <Aria Suite Lifecycle IP Address>

3. Compare the MAC addresses from steps 1 and 2. If they do not match, the Windows machine is communicating with a different device (stale entry).
4. Clear the ARP cache using the arp command.

   arp -d <Aria Suite Lifecycle IP Address>

5. Update the ARP Cache using the ping command.

   ping <Aria Suite Lifecycle IP Address>

6. Verify the update by running arp -a again.

   arp -a <Aria Suite Lifecycle IP Address>

7. Retry the installation. Delete the failed Aria Suite Lifecycle virtual machine from the vSphere Client and run the Easy Installer again.