Deployment of VCF Automation (VCFA) through Fleet Management fails with error LCMVCFA00012

Products

VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

Deployment of VCF automation fails at stage 17 with error code LCMVCFA00012 "Error creating VCFA Service account".

Error code snipped from the UI is similar to :

Error Code: LCMVCFA00012
LCMVCFA00012
<sddcmanagershortname> 
java.net.UnknownHostException: <sddcmanagershortname> at java.base/java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source) at java.base/java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source) at java.base/java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source) at org.bouncycastle.jsse.provider.ProvSSLSocketDirect.connect(ProvSSLSocketDirect.java:170)at java.base/sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.<init>(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.New(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect0(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(Unknown Source) at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.AbstractDelegateHttpsURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)  at java.base/sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsURLConnectionImpl.connect(Unknown Source) at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.CertificateUtil.getCertificateChain(CertificateUtil.java:499) at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vcfa.plugin.tasks.ConfigureSddcManagerEndpointInVcfaTask.createVcfaSddcManagerEndpointDTO(ConfigureSddcManagerEndpointInVcfaTask.java:126)  at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vcfa.plugin.tasks.ConfigureSddcManagerEndpointInVcfaTask.execute(ConfigureSddcManagerEndpointInVcfaTask.java:80)                at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.platform.automata.service.Task.retry(Task.java:158) at com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.automata.core.TaskThread.run(TaskThread.java:60)         at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)  at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

The /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.log in Fleet Management shows there are duplicate entries for SDDC manager, one that has being successfully configured in VCF automation the other fails

First SDDC manager has been successfully configured in VCFA as shown from log message:

2026-01-15T12:17:18.910Z INFO vrlcm[1244] [pool-3-thread-4] [c.v.v.l.v.p.t.ConfigureSddcManagerEndpointInVcfaTask]  -- <sddcmanagerfullfqdn> is already configured in VCF Automation.

Attempt to configure the second SDDC manager entry fails with bad request. Logs show two subsequent entries:

2026-01-15T12:17:18.947Z INFO vrlcm[1244] [pool-3-thread-4] [c.v.v.l.v.d.r.u.VcfaEndpointRestUtil]  -- Request to create SDDC Manager Endpoint : {"id":null,"name":"<sddcmanagershortname>","username":"<SDDCmanagerusername>","password":"#########","hostName":"<sddcmanagershortname>","version":"9.0.1.0","certificate":"-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----###############################################==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n"}
2026-01-15T12:17:18.949Z INFO vrlcm[1244] [pool-3-thread-4] [c.v.v.l.v.d.r.VcfaRestClient]  -- Triggering request :: https://<vcfaFQDN>/tm/cloudapi/1.0.0/vcfInfraEndpoints/

2026-01-15T12:17:18.996Z INFO vrlcm[1244] [pool-3-thread-4] [c.v.v.l.v.d.r.VcfaRestClient]  -- API Response Status : 400 Response Message : {"minorErrorCode":"BAD_REQUEST","message":"[ ########-####-####-####-############## ] validation error on field 'hostName': Domain name must be a valid FQDN."

Environment

VCF Operations 9.0.x

VCF Fleet Management 9.0.x

VCF Automation 9.0.x

SDDC manager 9.0.x

Cause

Duplicate/invalid entry for SDDC Manager registered on Fleet Management

Resolution

Take snapshot of Fleet Management as per KB How to create a snapshot for VCF Operations Fleet Manager appliance.
Go to swagger UI of VCF Ops LCM using: https://<VCF_Ops_LCM_FQDN>/api/swagger-ui/index.html
Change to private-internal-APIs
You may have to authorize to Swagger UI using admin@local credentials with Basic authentication. Please refer to KB How to Authorize VCF Operations Fleet Management API to generate authorization token.
Go to SDDC Manager Controller
Execute first API call: "Get all SDDC Manager" to get all SDDC Managers
Copy the vmid of invalid SDDC Manager entry
Execute the delete API call: "Delete SDDC Manager by vmid" by giving the vmid as obtained from previous step
This should delete the invalid SDDC Manager entry
Verify by triggering API from Step 5 above.
Try again a fresh deployment request for VCF automation appliance