Upgrade of VMware Aria Automation 8.18 Patch 2 to VCF Automation 9.x fails due to SSH configuration error

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

• During the upgrade of VMware Aria Automation 8.18 Patch 2 from Fleet Manager to VCF Automation 9.x, the upgrade process fails. The failure is triggered by an invalid SSH configuration parameter on the Fleet Manager node.
  
  
• An error similar to below snippet is observed in /var/log/vrlcm/vmware_vrlcm.log

  

  YYYY-MM--DD INFO vrlcm[1265] [pool-3-thread-14] [c.v.v.l.v.p.u.VMSPDay2Util]  -- Command: /usr/local/bin/vmsp pkg push --hooks-only xx.xx.xx.xx:xxxx/data/vm-config/vmrepo/productBinariesRepo/xx/xxxxxx -l upgrade=true --wait Error: date time Running hook prePush.sh
  + /usr/bin/sshpass xxxxx -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no /data/vmsp-pkg/files/scripts/vra_export_data.sh
  root@<IP>
  /etc/ssh/ssh_config: line 47: Bad configuration option: permitrootlogin
  /etc/ssh/ssh_config: terminating, 1 bad configuration options
  /usr/bin/scp: Connection closed
  Error: pre-push: failed to run hook prePush.sh: exit status 255
  

  
  
  

Environment

VCF Fleet Manager 9.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the PermitRootLogin parameter is incorrectly placed in the SSH client configuration file (/etc/ssh/ssh_config) of Fleet Manager. This parameter is only valid for the SSH daemon server configuration file (/etc/ssh/sshd_config).

Resolution

To resolve this issue please follow the steps below on Fleet Manager.

1. Validate and correct the client configuration file (/etc/ssh/ssh_config):

   • Open the file for editing.

   • Ensure that the PermitRootLogin directive is not present, as it is an invalid parameter in this file. Remove the line entirely if it is found.

2. Validate and correct the daemon configuration file (/etc/ssh/sshd_config):

   • Open the file for editing.

   • Confirm that the PermitRootLogin parameter is set to yes. If it is set to no or commented out, update the file to allow root logins.

   • Example configuration:

     PermitRootLogin yes
     

3. If the issue persists, restart the SSH service from the Fleet Manager UI:

   • Navigate to the Fleet Manager UI.

   • Disable the SSH service.

   • Wait a few seconds, then re-enable the SSH service to restart the daemon and apply the configuration changes.

4. Navigate to Fleet Management > Lifecycle > VCF Management > Tasks and Retry the failed upgrade request.