Unable to remove vCenter adapter instances stuck in "Removing" state in Aria Operations

Products

• VMware Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations) 8.x

Issue/Introduction

In a VMware Aria Operations environment configured with Continuous Availability (CA), you may encounter a situation where decommissioning a vCenter adapter instance fails.

Symptoms:

• Attempts to delete adapter instances result in a persistent "spinning" icon in the UI or the task remains in a "Removing" state indefinitely.

• The Aria Operations Cluster Management UI shows the cluster in a Degraded state.

• One or more nodes in a specific Fault Domain (e.g., FD2) are stuck in a "Waiting for Analytics" status.

• Administrative tasks like object deletion or configuration changes do not complete.

Environment

Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

This issue is caused by a Node State Mismatch within the Continuous Availability framework. If a node attempts to initialize its analytics service while its peers in the same Fault Domain are offline, it fails to reach quorum. Because Aria Operations requires acknowledgment from all nodes (or a valid CA quorum) to commit global configuration changes, the adapter removal task becomes blocked and cannot finalize.

Resolution

To resolve the stuck removal task, you must synchronize the node states and restore the Fault Domain and Continuous Availability enabled cluster to a healthy status. This process assumes that only Fault Domain 2 is degraded but Fault Domain 1 is running and functional:

1. Navigate to Administration > Control Panel > Cluster Management.
2. Identify the node(s) stuck in "Waiting for Analytics."
3. Click the Take Node Offline/Online button for the specific node(s) to move into a Stopped state. This ensures its state matches the other offline nodes in the Fault Domain.
4. Wait for all nodes in the affected Fault Domain 2 to show Offline and Stopped.
5. Login to the Admin UI and click the Bring Online button for the entire Fault Domain.
6. Monitor the process until all nodes show a status of Online and Running. The stuck "Removing" tasks should finalize automatically once the configuration successfully synchronizes across all domains.
   
   NOTE: It may take some time for the cluster to stabilize and all analytics tasks to sync. Allow up to 24 hours.
   
   
7. Log in to the Aria Operations Product UI and navigate to Administration > Integrations > Accounts to confirm any adapter instances that were stuck in Removing state have been deleted. Manually delete any remaining decommissioned adapters that are in a "Not Collecting" state.

Additional Information

Continuous Availability (CA)

Continuous Availability FAQs

Troubleshooting "Waiting for Analytics" in Aria Operations