Unable to access the virtual machine web console in VCD due to failed WebSocket connection

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to launch a console session in VMware Cloud Director (VCD), the status displays as 'Disconnected'.

The /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/console-proxy.log file does not contain any entries related to the affected console session.

The following error is observed in the browser's Developer Tools console:

WebSocket connection to 'wss://<VCD_PUBLIC_FQDN>/443;cst- ...... ' failed:

 

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.6.x

Cause

The issue occurs when traffic passes through the load balancer; however, the VM web console functions correctly when the load balancer is bypassed.

Resolution

Engage load balancer support to investigate the issue.

Workaround:

To bypass the load balancer for testing, modify the local hosts file to map the VCD_PUBLIC_FQDN directly to the IP address of a specific VCD cell. This forces the browser to establish a direct connection, bypassing the load balancer.

For example, on a Linux-based client, add a static entry to the /etc/hosts file:

##.##.##.## VCD_PUBLIC_FQDN