Windows salt minion deployment fails with "Minion deployment and/or state file run failed."

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• When deploying a virtual machine in Aria Automation, the deployment fails. The following error is displayed in Aria Automation interface:
  
  Minion deployment failed.
Minion deployment and/or state file run failed.
  
  
• In Aria Automation Config, navigating to the "Jobs" tab reveals the following traceback error for the corresponding Job ID (JID) responsible for deploying the salt minion:
  
  return: Exception occurred in runner deploy.minion:
......
File "/usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages/smbprotocol/transport.py", line 68, in connect raise ValueError(f"Failed to connect to '{self.server} :{self.port}'") from err ValueError: Failed to connect to '<minion ip>:445'

Environment

Aria Automation Config 8.17.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the salt master cannot establish a connection to the windows minion over TCP port 445 (SMB). The salt master requires access to port 445 on the target windows machine to remotely deploy and bootstrap the salt minion service. If communication over TCP port 445 is blocked, the deployment runner will time out and fail.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, ensure network connectivity is permitted over TCP port 445 between Aria Automation Config (salt master) and the target windows minion.

1. Verify network firewall configuration. Ensure that any firewalls, routers or security groups sitting between the salt master and the target VM subnet permit traffic on TCP port 445.
2. Configure the windows local firewall. On the target windows base template (or the affected virtual machine), verify that the local windows defender firewall allows inbound SMB traffic.
3. To confirm the path is open, log into the salt master command line and test connectivity to the target windows IP address:
   
   curl -v telnet://<salt minion ip>:445