vCenter missing from License Management in VCF Operations after upgrading to 9.0 or 9.1

Products

• VCF Operations
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware vSphere Foundation

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading to VCF 9.0 or 9.1, users may encounter the following symptoms in VCF Operations while trying to license the environment:

• Unable to assign a license to vCenters in VCF Operations.
• vCenter instances are not visible within the License Management Interface
  • 9.0 - License Management > Licenses > vCenter Systems
  • 9.1 - Manage > Licensing > Licenses & Registration > vCenter Systems
• The following error is observed in ManagementAdapter log on VCF Operations.
  
  /storage/log/vcops/log/adapters/ManagementAdapter/ManagementAdapter_##.log
  
  

  ERROR ManagementAdapter #### [ops@#### threadId="#####" threadName="vcf-licensing-collection-####" instanceId="#####"] [(#####) com.vmware.adapter.management.components.licensing.vcf.E.C.A] - Unable to find the user privileges: [Global.Licenses]
  
  instanceId="####" operationId="###"] [(###) com.vmware.adapter.management.components.licensing.vcf.collector.VCenterLicenseUsageCollector.validatePrivileges] - Configured VCenter user <username> is not member of LicenseService.Administrators or SSO Administrators groups
  
  ERROR ManagementAdapter #### [ops@#### threadId="#####" threadName="vcf-licensing-collection-####" instanceId="#####"] [(#####) com.vmware.adapter.management.components.licensing.vcf.G.A.C] - The configured User account for the VC endpoint vcenter1.example.com is missing the required permission Global.Licenses. License collection will not be performed.
  
  ERROR ManagementAdapter #### [ops@#### threadId="#####" threadName="vcf-licensing-collection-####" instanceId="#####"] [(#####) com.vmware.adapter.management.components.licensing.vcf.G.A.B] - Failed to perform managed check on License Manager for VC ad4####-####-####-####-########c23d at vcenter.example.com
  com.vmware.vim.vmomi.client.exception.ConnectionException: https://vcenter.example.com/sdk invocation failed with "java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out"

• The following alert is generated in the user interface: "Licensing privileges are missing for the configured vCenter cloud account credentials."
• ACTIVATE MANAGEMENT shows the message "The selected vCenter systems are not eligible for activating management".
• Manage vCenter Integration shows the message "License and vSphere Client plug-in management are inactive".
  
  

Environment

• VCF 9.0 / 9.1
• VVF 9.0 / 9.1

Cause

This issue occurs because the vCenter adapter instance in VCF Operations was configured with an account (often an Active Directory account) that lacks the mandatory Global.Licenses privilege for License Management.

 

Resolution

1. To resolve this issue, ensure the user used in the affected vCenter adapter instance in VCF Operations has assigned the roles and privileges listed in this document Privileges Required for Configuring a vCenter Account.
   
   1. Alternatively, vCenter SSO Administrator account (eg. [email protected]) or a service account with the Administrator role can be used for the vCenter adapter connection on VCF Operations.
2. Perform "Activate Management" after configuring the vCenter integration with the correct account.
   1. Navigate to Administration > Integrations > VCF.
   2. Select the checkbox for the affected Workload Domain vCenter.
   3. Click ACTIVATE MANAGEMENT to register the instance as a licensable asset. vCenter missing from License Management in VCF Operations
3. Wait for 10-15 minutes for the data collection
4. Retry the License Assignment operation.