AVI deployment from SDDC Manager fails with error "violates format 'hostname-or-ip'" when the hostname begins with a digit.

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware NSX
• VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer

Issue/Introduction

• Attempting to deploy the VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (AVI) using SDDC Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fails.

• The configured hostname, FQDN, or Virtual IP (VIP) FQDN for the AVI deployment begins with a leading digit.

• In the SDDC Manager domainmanager.log (located at /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/), we observe API invocation failures similar to the following:

  • ERROR [vcf_dm] [c.v.v.c.n.s.c.c.ComplexHelpers,dm-exec-21]  Exception occurred during NSX API invocation
    java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.InvalidRequest: InvalidRequest (com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.invalid_request) (statusCode:400) => {
        messages = [],
        data =  => {error_message=Field level validation errors: {value '00-node01' of property deployment_requests[1].deployment_config.hostname violates format 'hostname-or-ip'}, {value '00-node01' of property deployment_requests[2].deployment_config.hostname violates format 'hostname-or-ip'}, {value '00-node01' of property deployment_requests[0].deployment_config.hostname violates format 'hostname-or-ip'}, httpStatus=BAD_REQUEST, error_code=255, module_name=common-services},
        errorType = INVALID_REQUEST

Environment

VMware NSX
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (AVI)

Cause

The NSX API utilizes a strict string validation check (hostname-or-ip) for the deployment_config.hostname property. Currently, this validation logic incorrectly rejects hostnames that start with a leading digit. Because SDDC Manager relies on the NSX API to orchestrate the AVI deployment, the NSX API rejects the payload, causing the SDDC Manager workflow to fail.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware NSX. This behavior will be resolved in an upcoming major release of VMware NSX 9.x.

Workaround: To successfully deploy the NSX Advanced Load Balancer via SDDC Manager, the AVI Cluster FQDN, VIP FQDN, and all associated node hostnames must be configured to begin with an alphabetical letter rather than a digit.

Additional Information

• Do not deploy manually: Deploying the AVI controllers manually outside of SDDC Manager to bypass this API check is not supported. Doing so breaks VCF integration and prevents SDDC Manager from performing subsequent lifecycle management (LCM) on the AVI appliances.

• Do not rename post-deployment: Deploying the cluster with a leading letter and attempting to rename it to a leading digit post-deployment is not possible, as the initial FQDN becomes permanently embedded into the SDDC Manager database.

• VIP FQDN dependency: Attempting to only rename the Cluster Name to start with a letter while leaving the VIP FQDN starting with a digit will also fail. The node names are derived directly from the VIP FQDN, meaning the validation check will still trigger against the individual nodes.