Backup fails with "Synthetic Check Failure" for VIDB and VCFA in VCF Operations

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• Backup tasks stall at Stage 1 for approximately 30 minutes.
• Fleet Manager logs (/var/log/vrlcm/vmware-vrlcm.log) explicitly report: platform-vmsp-platform-backup : no files at least 24h0m0s old found
• Manual backups fail during the synthetic check, while scheduled backups appear to complete (as they do not perform a synthetic check).
• Backup attempts for the VIDB or VCFA appliance fail with a synthetic check error. 
  
  The following log entries are observed in the /var/log/vmware/vrlcm/vmware-vrlcm.log on fleet manager.
  #### INFO vrlcm[####] [pool-3-thread-48] [c.v.v.l.p.a.s.Task] --{ "componentSpec" : { "object" : { "component" : { "symbolicName" : "servicesplatformsyntheticcheck", "properties" : { "vmspKubeconfigPassword" : "####", "server": "https://####:6443", "cluster": "####", "skipSyntheticCheck" : "true", "syntheticCheckerMessages" : "Synthetic check failed. Please refer to Broadcom Knowledge Base Article https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/389510 for remediation details.,\"platform-vmsp-platform-backup : no files at least 24h0m0s old found\"" } } } }}

Environment

 VCF Operations 9.0.2

Cause

The system requires a valid base backup file to perform a synthetic check. If the initial backup chain has never been successfully established, or if a previous backup task was interrupted, the synthetic check fails because it cannot locate a reference file that is at least 24 hours old.

Resolution

1. Allow any existing active backup tasks to time out in the Tasks tab of Fleet Manager.
2. Start a new backup task for both the VIDB and VCFA appliances.
3. Select the Bypass Synthetic Check option during the initiation of these backup tasks.
4. Confirm if the  initial backup file is successfully created in the desired backup server directory. 
5. Once the initial file exists and is older than 24 hours, subsequent standard backup tasks will complete successfully after the initial Stage 1 processing period.

Additional Information

Contact Broadcom support