VCF Brownfield Deployment Fails with "BROWNFIELD_VCF_OPERATIONS_MGMT_CONNECTIVITY_VALIDATION" error

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

When attempting a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.2 Brownfield Deployment, the process fails during the validation phase. Specifically, you may observe the following symptoms:

• The deployment fails at Step 13: Validate and Deploy during the Brownfield VCF Management Components validation.

• An error is thrown indicating an inability to connect to VCF Operations fleet management.

• 

• Reviewing the /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log reveals the following error trace:

  • YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SS+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,69d49f115cb1dda3bf507e3c4cb55491,d948] [c.v.e.s.o.c.c.ContractParamBuilder,dm-exec-21] Contract task AuditBrownfieldVcfManagementSuiteAction result:
{"combinedAuditBrownfieldVcfManagementSuiteResponse": {"errorCode": "BROWNFIELD_VCF_MANAGEMENT_SUITE_VALIDATION.error...", "validation.taskId": "0a2ef50a-9d5f-155d-819d-668a0e51030d"}, "message": "Brownfield VCF Management Components validation failed", "nestedErrors": [ ... {"errorCode": "BROWNFIELD_VCF_OPERATIONS_MGMT_CONNECTIVITY_VALIDATION.error", "arguments": ["#########"],"context": {"severity":"ERROR","bundleName": "com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.validation.errors.messages", "validation.taskId": "0a2ef50a-9d5f-155d-819d-668a0e51030d"}, "message": "Failed to connect to VCF Operations fleet management with address ########"} ... ]}
• When we check the nslookup for Fleet Management, both reverse and forward resolve as expected. 

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0.2

Cause

This issue occurs due to an authentication failure. An incorrect administrator password was provided for VCF Operations fleet management during the configuration steps.

Because the credentials are invalid, the domainmanager service receives an HTTP 401 Unauthorized response when attempting to retrieve system details via the API endpoint, preventing the validation from completing successfully.

This can be verified further up in the /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log:

YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SS+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,69d49f115cb1dda3bf507e3c4cb55491,d948] [c.v.e.s.r.c.LoggingHttpRequestInterceptor,dm-exec-21]
/api/v2/settings/system-details
Request method: GET
Request body
Response code: 401 UNAUTHORIZED
Response headers: [Date:"Tue, 0# Apr #### ##:##:## GMT", Content-Type:"application/json", ...]
Response body: {"code":401, "description": "Bad credentials"}

YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SS+0000  ERROR [vcf_dm,69d49f115cb1dda3bf507e3c4cb55491,d948] [c.v.e.s.c.v.v.VcfOpsMgmtServiceImpl, dm-exec-21]
Failed to get system info from VCF Operations Management #######

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must update the VCF Installer with the correct credentials for VCF Operations fleet management.

1. In the VCF Installer UI, navigate back to Step 3 (VCF Operations).

2. Update the administrator credentials, ensuring that the correct password is provided for VCF Operations fleet management.

3. Proceed forward through the VCF Installer steps to return to Step 13.

4. Re-run the Validate and Deploy process.

Providing valid credentials resolves the 401 Unauthorized condition, allowing the domainmanager to successfully query the /lcm/lcops/api/v2/settings/system-details API endpoint and pass the connectivity validation.