Scheduled Virtual Machine (VM) Clone Task Failure Causes vpxd Service to Crash on the vCenter

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• In vCenter, an automated scheduled task to clone a Virtual Machine (VM) causes the vpxd service to crash, rendering the vSphere Client unresponsive.
• A vpxd core dump is generated in /var/core partition of the vCenter.
• This issue is specific to scheduled VM cloning tasks, as the same task completes successfully when triggered manually.
• The following log snippet may be observed in vpxd log (/var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log) when the task executes:
  YYYY-MM-DD THH:MM:SS warning vpxd[3054279] [Originator@6876 sub=AuthorizeManager opID=ProcessScheduledTaskFiring-414b8617] Refresh function is not configured.User data can't be added to scheduler.User name: domain\username

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)

vCenter 9.0.2

Cause

When a scheduled Clone VM task is executed automatically by the system scheduler, it triggers specific background logic to create a temporary user session. During this automated session-creation process, required session parameters (such as locale settings) are inadvertently dropped or not populated. The absence of this necessary session data causes an unhandled exception during task processing, resulting in the vpxd service crashing.

Resolution

Broadcom Engineering is aware of this issue and a fix will be included in a future vCenter update.

Workaround:
Until a permanent fix is available, bypass the scheduled clone tasks by doing the following:

1. Disable any automated scheduled tasks configured to clone Virtual Machines.
2. Execute the Clone VM tasks manually when required.