vApp Backup/Restore Fails with Authentication Error in Dell Avamar CDDPE Plugin for VMware Cloud Director

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to perform a vApp backup or restore operation within a VMware Cloud Director environment using the Dell Avamar Data Protection Plugin or CDDPE, the task fails immediately with an authentication error.

The following stack trace is observed in the Avamar logs:

BGExceptions.BGForbiddenException: 11201 : Failed to login to vCenter.: InvalidLogin: Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password. at com.emc.vcp.ba.vmw.vcr.QueryVCenter.connectionAcquire(QueryVCenter.java:94) at com.emc.vcp.ba.vmw.CloudService.buildVappData(CloudService.java:295)

Environment

• 10.3
• 10.4
• 10.5
• 10.6

Cause

The failure is caused by an authentication breakdown within the Dell Avamar Data Protection Plugin.

Although the error appears within the VCD interface, the package prefix com.emc.vcp indicates the error originates from the external Dell EMC software stack.

VCD acts as a pass-through for these alerts and is not the source of the authentication failure.

The InvalidLogin error specifically points to the plugin's inability to establish a session with the vCenter API using its configured credentials or integration hooks.

Resolution

Because the error codes and the authentication handshake are proprietary to the Dell EMC software stack, a resolution requires vendor-specific tools and configuration audits from Dell.

1. Open a service request with Dell EMC to investigate the Avamar CDDPE component and the Data Protection Plugin.
2. Ask Dell support to verify the plugin's internal configuration, specifically the service account permissions and its integration hooks into the vCenter API.
3. Ensure that the SSL trust between VCD and vCenter is healthy, as a broken certificate chain can often lead to InvalidLogin or Unable to get first certificate errors during the handshake.