Failed to add node to the NSX Manager cluster after restore with [CBM31] Error

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to join a new NSX Manager node to a cluster that was recently restored from backup, the operation fails. The following error is observed in the NSX Manager user interface or CLI:

An error occurred while joining the specified cluster. Reason: [CBM31] Error adding node to the existing Corfu cluster.

Additionally, after restoring the first node, the following conditions may be observed:

• get cluster status on the restored node shows a stable state with only one node.
• service corfu-nonconfig-server-status is active and running.
• Attempts to manually verify or clean the cluster state were performed before adding new nodes.

Cause

This issue occurs if the deactivate cluster command was manually executed on the first restored NSX Manager node.

Executing the deactivate cluster command is not a standard recovery step and strips away the cluster metadata provided by the backup. This causes the newly deployed nodes to fail during the automated join and synchronization process as they cannot establish a valid connection to the primary node's Corfu cluster.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, the NSX Manager must be restored from backup again without performing manual cluster deactivation.
For detailed version-specific recovery procedures, refer to the following official documentation:

• 3.x - Restore a Backup
• 4.x - Restore a Backup

Additional Information

Troubleshooting NSX Backup and Restore Failures