vCenter root account disconnected in VCF after enabling vCenter HA

Products

• VCF Operations
• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• The VCF Operations UI Fleet Management > Passwords page displays the vCenter root account as Disconnected.
• The vSphere UI Administration > Password Management page shows the root account in a disconnected state.
• The vCenter password on SDDC UI shows disconnected.
• Attempts to remediate the vCenter root account password from SDDC or VCF Operations fail with the following error:

  Description - Password remediate for resource :  vcenter.example.com , user : root and credential type : SSH
  Remediation Message: Please make sure each powered-on VM has a unique FQDN.
  Cause: Found 3 powered-on VMs with FQDN  vcenter.example.com , should be 1.
  
  

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x

Cause

vCenter HA is not supported for vCenter Server instances managed by VMware Cloud Foundation. When VCHA is enabled, it creates multiple VMs (Active, Passive, and Witness) sharing the same identity, which conflicts with the VCF password remediation workflows that expect a single unique FQDN.

Resolution

To restore the vCenter Server to a supported architecture and remediate the password, follow these steps:

1. Deactivate vCenter HA on the impacted vCenter Server instance.
2. Retain the active vCenter VM.
3. Delete the passive vCenter VM and the witness VM from the vSphere inventory.
4. Clear the failed password workflows by following the steps in KB 408771.
5. Perform the remediation of the vCenter root password.
6. Verify the password status shows as connected in the SDDC, VCF Operations UI.

Note: For VCF-managed environments, use vSphere HA at the cluster level to protect the vCenter Server VM instead of vCenter HA.

Additional Information

See the vCenter HA FAQ for more information - KB 313528