VCF Installer Fails SDDC Specification Validation with error "SSH: Failed to establish SSH session to <VCF Installer FQDN> Auth fail" due to local user (admin@local) password issue

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• While validating the SDDC specification from the VCF Installer fails with the error: "SSH: Failed to establish SSH session to <VCF Installer FQDN>  Auth fail".

• The /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log on VCF installer shows below error,

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm,############] [c.v.e.s.s.h.SddcManagerTokenUtil,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-1]  Failed to get SDDC Manager  Access token.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm,############] [c.v.v.v.c.v1.VcfInstallerController,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-1]  Failed to get Access token to validate the local user password specified in SDDC Manager specification
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm#############] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SpecComponentValidator,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-1]  Invalid local user password specified in SDDC Manager specification
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm,#############] [c.v.evo.sddc.common.util.SshUtil,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-1]  Unable to create jsch CLI session: com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: Auth fail

Environment

 VCF 9.x

Cause

The password provided for local user (admin@local) during the VCF installer deployment is not meeting required password constraints. 

Resolution

To resolve this issue,

1. Power off the current VCF Installer VM.
   
   
2. Deploy new VCF Installer again with OVA file. (Same IP address can be used as the old VCF installer is powered off)
   
   
3. On OVA deployment wizard, while under 'Additional Settings' section to configure the root and local user passwords, ensuring they meet the required password constraints." (Refer Deploy the VMware Cloud Foundation Installer Appliance)
   
   
4. Power on the VCF Installer VM and go through VCF 9.x Deployment Wizard.
   Note: Alternate option to avoid going through complete Deployment Wizard process is by download the JSON spec file from Deployment Wizard before powering off the old VCF installer VM and use the same JSON spec file in the new VCF Installer using option "Deploy using JSON Spec". (Warning: The JSON spec saves all credentials in plain text, ensure to store the file at a secure location.)

Additional Information

If you see below error on /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log, please follow KB article 418890 for resolution.

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS ERROR [vcf_dm,#############] [c.v.e.s.e.h.LocalizableRuntimeExceptionHandler,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-2] [18P48G] FAILED_TO_GET_DNS_INFO Failed to get DNS information
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS DEBUG [vcf_dm,#############] [c.v.e.s.e.h.LocalizableRuntimeExceptionHandler,http-nio-127.0.0.1-7200-exec-2] Handler Error Response: {"errorCode":"FAILED_TO_GET_DNS_INFO","arguments":[],"message":"Failed to get DNS information","causes":[{"type":"com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.util.command.CommandExecuterException","message":"SSH: Failed to establish SSH session to <VCF Installer FQDN>"},{"type":"com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException","message":"Auth fail"}],"referenceToken":"18P48G"}