ERROR "LCMVMSP10041: Failed to fetch appliance cluster node details" when installing VCFA

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager
• VCF Automation
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• The following error is present during the VCF Automation (VCFA) installation:
  
  LCMVMSP10041: Failed to fetch appliance cluster node details
  
  
  
  
  
• Further logging indicates that the fleet managment appliance cannot SSH to the VCFA VIP:
  
  VRLCM - /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.log

2026-02-04T13:48:45.314Z INFO vrlcm[1618] [http-nio-8080-exec-9] [c.v.v.l.a.g.s.EngineServiceImpl]  -- Error Cause ::
{
  "messageId" : "LCMVMSP10041",
  "message" : "Failed to fetch appliance cluster node details.",
  "eventId" : "1f15af76-315c-4379-90ad-4a45a60f8814",
  "retry" : true,
  "exceptionMessage" : "Cannot execute SSH commands. Verify the SSH login credentials.",
  "exceptionStackTrace" : "com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.exception.SshAuthenticationFailureException: Cannot execute SSH commands. Verify the SSH login credentials.\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SshUtils.execute(SshUtils.java:748)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SshUtils.runCommand(SshUtils.java:538)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SshUtils.runCommand(SshUtils.java:522)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vmsp.plugin.util.VMSPUtil.fetchVMSPConfigFromCluster(VMSPUtil.java:1265)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vmsp.plugin.tasks.FetchVMSPNodeDetailsTask.setClusterName(FetchVMSPNodeDetailsTask.java:135)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.vmsp.plugin.tasks.FetchVMSPNodeDetailsTask.execute(FetchVMSPNodeDetailsTask.java:119)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.automata.core.TaskThread.run(TaskThread.java:62)\n\tat java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)\n\tat java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)\n\tat java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)\nCaused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot create session for ssh://vmware-system-user@#.#.#.#\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SessionHolder.newSession(SessionHolder.java:57)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SessionHolder.<init>(SessionHolder.java:37)\n\tat com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SshUtils.execute(SshUtils.java:694)\n\t... 9 more\nCaused by: com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: Auth fail for methods 'publickey,password,keyboard-interactive'\n\tat YXYXYXYX com.vmware.vrealize.lcm.util.SessionHolder.newSession(SessionHolder.java:53)\n\t... 11 more\n",
  "localizedMessageId" : null,
  "parameters" : null,
  "properties" : { }
}

Cause

The cause for this is unknown currently but it is suspect to possibly be environmental.

Resolution

• Delete the failed VCFA deployment.
• re-deploy the VCFA instance through VCF Operations. 

Additional Information

To continue researching this, the vmware-system-user password needs to be recovered. Once that has been accomplished, SSH connectivity will need to be manually tested.

How to recover the vmware-system-user password:

1. SSH to fleet manager with root user
   
   
2. Run the following command: touch /var/lib/vrlcm/UI_ENABLED
   
   
3. login into the now enabled fleet manager UI with admin@local account.
   
   
4. Go to the password locker / locker (top right corner grid)
   
   
5. Find the vmware-system-user (should say "in use"), then click view password and put in the root password for fleet manager.

If the vmware-system-user is missing from fleet manager, then it required to try to do a VCF inventory sync to get the VCFA nodes to sync the vmware-system-user account. If that does not work, then the only option is a redeployment.

Search cancel Search Unable to remediate VCF Automation "vmware-system-user" password once expired.

For further information on VCF operations for troubleshooting automation deployment issues can be found at the following link:

Troubleshooting VMware Cloud Foundation or vSphere Foundation Deployments

LCMVMSP10027 and LCMVCFA00010 are received when trying to delete a failed VCF Automation deployment