VCF Automation or VCF Identity Broker Installation/Upgrade Fails During “Create Automation Cluster” Stage with Error: “Step deploy_vmsp_cluster failed"

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

VCF Automation and VCF Identity Broker installation or upgrade can fail in environments where multiple Distributed Virtual Switches (DVS) have port groups with identical names.

VCFA Install or upgrade payload execution halts with a GenericServerException

Error Traces : INFO sddc-build-service 52 [...] Kubectl command result: CmdResult(exitCode=1, stdout=, stderr=error: the server doesn't have a resource type "pd", finished=true, sshClientException=null)
ERROR sddc-build-service 52 [...] Could not get component details through SSH on VSP cluster: <VSP HOSTNAME>
com.broadcom.vcf.lcm.build.common.exception.GenericServerException: Failed to retrieve details for VCFA at '<vcfa hostname>'
com.broadcom.vcf.lcm.sddc.build.plugins.vcfa.driver.Vcfa90ComponentBrowser.attemptToPodDetailsString(Vcfa90ComponentBrowser.java:134)

SDDC Manager logs errors: 

Error: failed to import /nfs/vmware/vcf/nfs-mount/bundle/<uuid>/vcf-services-platform-template-9.1.0.0.25210318.ova: path '/cluster/network/Management Networks/<pg-name>' resolves to multiple networks

Imagine a vCenter inventory with two separate Distributed Switches (DVS-A and DVS-B), both containing a management port group named Mgmt-Network-01.

Problematic inventory structure

Datacenter
    └── network/  
          ├── DVS-A/  
          │     └── Mgmt-Network-01  
          └── DVS-B/  
                └── Mgmt-Network-01

When VCF 9.1 attempts to look up the path, it evaluates both as .../network/Mgmt-Network-01, throwing the error: path resolves to multiple networks.

Environment

VCF Automation 9.1

VCF Services runtime

Cause

This issue is caused by a defect in the VCF services runtime related to inventory path resolution. When multiple DVS instances contain port groups with the same name, the system does not include a unique identifier for the port group in the inventory path. This results in ambiguous references, preventing the installer from resolving the correct network resource and leading to a failure during deployment or upgrade workflows.

Resolution

Engineering is currently working on a permanent fix, which is expected to be included in an upcoming release.

Workaround: 

1. To resolve this issue, isolate the inventory paths by organizing your network topology into distinct vCenter network folders:
2. Log in to the vCenter and navigate to the Network view (Inventory -> Networking).
3. Right-click your Datacenter object and select New Folder -> New Network Folder.
4. Create a dedicated folder for the first DVS (e.g., Folder-[DVS-Name-A]).
5. Move the respective DVS into this newly created folder.
6. Repeat Steps 3–5 for any other DVS instances that share overlapping port group names.
7. Once the vCenter inventory paths are unique, Retry the failed VCFA or VIDB installation or upgrade workflow.

Example of corrected Inventory Structure (Workaround):

By placing each DVS inside its own unique Network Folder, the fully qualified inventory path becomes unique.

Datacenter/
└── network/
    ├── Folder-DVS-A/
    │    └── DVS-A/
    │         └── Mgmt-Network-01  <-- Path: .../Folder-DVS-A/Mgmt-Network-01
    └── Folder-DVS-B/
         └── DVS-B/
              └── Mgmt-Network-01  <-- Path: .../Folder-DVS-B/Mgmt-Network-01