VMware Cloud Foundation deployment fails with "FAILED_TO_FETCH_IMAGES" error when using a mismatched VCF Installer version

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

During the deployment of VMware Cloud Foundation, the process fails during the image fetch phase. This typically occurs when there is a version discrepancy between the VCF Installer being used and the target VCF version being deployed.

• The following error is observed in the SDDC Manager UI: Failed to fetch the images from LCM Service with error: No images found for Product SDDC_MANAGER Version <VERSION_NUMBER>. Remediation: Download the necessary images and retry the workflow. Reference Token:####

• The following logs can be found in /var/log/vmware/domainmanager/domainmanager.log on the SDDC Manager:

  YYYY-MM-DDT HH:MM:SS INFO  [domainmanager,####,####] [c.v.e.s.o.c.v.VcfImageValidationTask,####] FAILED_TO_FETCH_IMAGES Failed to fetch the images from LCM Service with error: No images found for Product SDDC_MANAGER Version 9.0.2.0.########.

  YYYY-MM-DDT HH:MM:SS ERROR [domainmanager,####,####] [c.v.e.s.o.f.WorkflowExecutor,####] Workflow <WORKFLOW_ID> failed.

  com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: Failed to fetch the images from LCM Service with error: No images found for Product SDDC_MANAGER Version 9.0.2.0.########.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x

Cause

By design, the installation image is transferred from the VCF Installer to the SDDC Manager during the bring-up process. In certain race conditions, or when a version mismatch exists between the Installer and the target deployment version, the installer fails to complete this transfer. Consequently, the SDDC Manager Life Cycle Management (LCM) service cannot locate the required metadata or binary for the specific product version (e.g., SDDC_MANAGER).

Resolution

To resolve this issue, follow the steps below:

Method 1: Version Alignment (Recommended)

1. Ensure the VCF Installer version matches the VCF version intended for deployment (e.g., use VCF Installer 9.0.1 for a VCF 9.0.1 deployment).
2. Restart the deployment process using the aligned installer version.

Method 2: Manual Image Verification (If SDDC Manager is already deployed) If the SDDC Manager VM has already been deployed and you must proceed with the current setup:

1. Log in to the SDDC Manager VM via SSH as the vcf user and switch to root.

2. Verify the status of the LCM service: systemctl status lcm

3. Check the inventory for the missing image entry: curl -X GET http://localhost:####/lcm/images

4. If the image for the target version is missing, manually trigger an image refresh or use the SOS (Service Operations Self-help) utility to verify the health of the LCM filesystem.

5. Once the images are properly registered in the LCM inventory, retry the failed deployment task from the VCF Installer or SDDC Manager UI.

Additional Information

We may find that even if a similar KB regarding NSX image validation is followed, this specific SDDC_MANAGER image fetch error persists if the installer version remains mismatched.