Unable to deploy VI workload domain - Error: " Validation failed for directory path /home/backup on server <FQDN>".

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

Deployment of VI workload domain fails with backup server error: "Make sure backup directory is intact and sftp server has write permissions on backup path"

/var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log: 


YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,6a2299f54876a50ac9abad9bbd894abf,9306] [c.v.v.c.f.p.b.r.v.BackupLocationValidator,dm-exec-26]  VcfSshException occurred while checking path /home/backup and write permission on server <FQDN> com.vmware.vcf.secure.ssh.errors.VcfSshException: Failed to create directory vcf_05-Jun-2026_09-42-14 in path /home/backup in host <FQDN>

        at com.vmware.vcf.secure.ssh.SshExecuter.createDirectoryInSftpServer(SshExecuter.java:380)

        at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.backup.restore.validator.BackupLocationValidator.validatePathAndWritePermissionOnSftp(BackupLocationValidator.java:98)

        at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.backup.restore.validator.BackupLocationValidator.validatePathAndWritePermissionOnSftp(BackupLocationValidator.java:68)

        at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.backup.restore.action.AuditBackupLocationAccessibilityAction.execute(AuditBackupLocationAccessibilityAction.java:92)

        at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.backup.restore.action.AuditBackupLocationAccessibilityAction.execute(AuditBackupLocationAccessibilityAction.java:33)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionState.invoke(FsmActionState.java:66)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:161)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:147)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.invokeMethod(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:403)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.processTask(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:517)

        at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.accept(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:128)

        at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1091.invoke(Unknown Source)

        at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)

        at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)

        at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.invokeSubscriberMethod(Subscriber.java:85)

        at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.lambda$dispatchEvent$0(Subscriber.java:71)

        at com.vmware.vcf.common.tracing.TraceRunnable.run(TraceRunnable.java:63)

        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136)

        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635)

        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840)

Caused by: com.jcraft.jsch.SftpException: Failure

        at com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelSftp.throwStatusError(ChannelSftp.java:2873)

        at com.jcraft.jsch.ChannelSftp.mkdir(ChannelSftp.java:2182)

        at com.vmware.vcf.secure.ssh.SshExecuter.createDirectoryInSftpServer(SshExecuter.java:377)

        ... 19 common frames omitted
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+0000 INFO  [vcf_dm,6a2299f54876a50ac9abad9bbd894abf,9306] [c.v.v.c.f.p.b.r.v.BackupLocationValidator,dm-exec-26]  ERROR_CODE, CREATE_DIRECTORY_FAILED

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,6a2299f54876a50ac9abad9bbd894abf,9306] [c.v.v.c.f.p.b.r.u.BackupLocationValidatorUtil,dm-exec-26]  Locale from LocaleContextHolder - en_US

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,6a2299f54876a50ac9abad9bbd894abf,9306] [c.v.e.s.c.v.util.ResponseUtil,dm-exec-26]  Build validation response: {"errorCode":"REMOTE_DIRECTORY_VALIDATION.error","arguments":["/home/backup","<FQDN>"],"context":{"severity":"ERROR","bundleName":"com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.validation.errors.messages","validation.taskId":"c0a8047d-9e42-1d1e-819e-9729383002a3"},"message":"Validation failed for directory path /home/backup on server <FQDN>. Make sure backup directory is intact and sftp server has write permissions on backup path","remediationMessage":"Ensure that the directory exists on server and has write permission","cause":[{"type":"com.vmware.vcf.secure.ssh.errors.VcfSshException","message":"*****"}]}

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.x 

Cause

On SFTP server /home/backup folder we noticed insufficient disk space

Resolution

• Logged into the SFTP server using the VCF backup user

• Navigated to the /home/backup directory

• Check for the folder size by running 

  df -h 

• Increased the size of the /home/backup directory on the SFTP server

• Retried the VI workload domain deployment, which completed successfully