vCenter Appliance Management Interface displays the previous disk capacity instead of reflecting the updated size after expanding the underlying VMDKs.
search cancel

vCenter Appliance Management Interface displays the previous disk capacity instead of reflecting the updated size after expanding the underlying VMDKs.

book

Article ID: 430086

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

  • After increasing the virtual disk size for a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) (e.g., expanding the /storage/log/ partition from 25GB to 50GB), the vCenter Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) continues to reflect the old capacity.
  • The /usr/lib/applmgmt/support/scripts/autogrow.sh script in vCenter was executed after increasing the /storage/log/ partition.
  • Partition metrics are correct from vCenter SSH:
    • df -h
    • lsblk
  • From /var/log/vmware/observability/observability.log in vCenter, following events are observed :

[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,172]ERROR 19415[main] - >com.vmware.stellar.subprocess.SubProcess.scriptValidation(SubProcess.java:165) -  Invalid script path: /etc/vmware->observability/custom_plugins/scripts/sessiondata.sh
[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,173]ERROR 19416[main] - >com.vmware.stellar.plugin.PluginManager.loadPluginConfig(PluginManager.java:371) - Failed to load plugin >SessionDataPlugin : invalid data found.
[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,176]ERROR 19419[main] - >com.vmware.stellar.plugin.PluginManager.loadPluginConfig(PluginManager.java:371) - Failed to load plugin >LicenseEventPlugin : invalid data found.

[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,177]ERROR 19420[main] - >com.vmware.stellar.subprocess.SubProcess.scriptValidation(SubProcess.java:165) -  Invalid script path: /etc/vmware->observability/custom_plugins/scripts/certificateEvents.sh
[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,177]ERROR 19420[main] - >com.vmware.stellar.plugin.PluginManager.loadPluginConfig(PluginManager.java:371) - Failed to load plugin CertEventPlugin : invalid data found.

[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,526] WARN 26769[Thread-34] - >com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.getTblSpcSize(SqlWriter.java:174) - Failed to get Postgres Connection.
[YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss,527]ERROR 26770[Thread-34] - >com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.execute(SqlWriter.java:301) - null
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.getTblSpcSize(SqlWriter.java:180)
at com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.writeMetricInfoToStatDB(SqlWriter.java:407)
at com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.execute(SqlWriter.java:298)
at com.vmware.stellar.plugin.Daemon.drain(Daemon.java:183)
at com.vmware.stellar.executor.DaemonExecutor.run(DaemonExecutor.java:143)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:750)

Cause

The reporting discrepancy is rooted in a failure of the VMware Observability Service, which is responsible for querying and pushing partition metrics to the appliance management layer. 

The failure occurs due to the following chain of events:

  • Invalid Plugin Configuration: The plugin.json configuration file contains incorrect or unreachable script paths (e.g., pointing to /etc/ instead of /usr/lib/) for core observability plugins.
  • Plugin Loading Failure: The service fails to load critical plugins, including:
    1. SessionDataPlugin
    2. LicenseEventPlugin
    3. CertificateEventsPlugin
  • These above loading failures of the result in a NullPointerException within the com.vmware.observability.observer.SqlWriter.getTblSpcSize function.
  • Metric Update Failure: Because the service cannot establish a valid PostgreSQL connection due to the initialization error, it cannot calculate the new tablespace sizes or update the VAMI display.

Resolution

To restore accurate reporting of partitions metrics, the observability service configuration must be corrected:

  1. Verify Script Presence: Ensure the required scripts exist in the following directory: /usr/lib/vmware-observability/custom_plugins/scripts/

    1. sessiondata.sh
    2. licenseEvents.sh
    3. certificateEvents.sh
  2. Replace Corrupted Configuration: Replace the file /var/lib/vmware-observability/config/plugin.json with a known-good version from a functional vCenter Server running the exact same build.
  3. Apply Correct Permissions: 
    1. chown observability:observability /var/lib/vmware-observability/config/plugin.json
    2. chmod 600 /var/lib/vmware-observability/config/plugin.json
  4. Validate Patch Version: Ensure /etc/vmware-observability/config/observability.properties contains the line: observability.patch.version=2.4
  5. Restart Observability Service: service-control --restart observability

Additional Information

Reference :

"The log partition size on this vCenter Server is smaller than the recommended 50 GB", increase the disk space of /storage/log to 50GB on vCenter 8.0

Increasing the disk space for the vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0

 

Powered by Wolken Software