Aria Config webpage failing to load after reboot "connection refused"

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• After rebooting the RaaS server navigating to the UI shows "connection refused"
• No changes were made before rebooting
• The RaaS logs ( /var/log/raas/raas )show stack traces like this:
  
  2026-06-05 17:51:47,652 [raas.utils.logging][ERROR   :492 ][MainProcess:######] An un-handled exception was caught by raas's global exception handler:
AttributeError: get_key
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/scripts/raas", line 5, in <module>
    raas.scripts.run_raas()
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/scripts.py", line 32, in run_raas
    hub.raas.init.new()
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/pop/contract.py", line 166, in __call__
    return self.func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/utils/org.py", line 148, in wraps
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/mods/raas/init.py", line 439, in new
    hub.raas.init.prepare()
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/pop/contract.py", line 166, in __call__
    return self.func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/mods/raas/init.py", line 264, in prepare
    hub.raas.config.load_secure_opts()
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/pop/contract.py", line 166, in __call__
    return self.func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/mods/raas/config.py", line 1350, in load_secure_opts
    "postgres": hub.db.local_kv.get_key("postgres"),
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/pop/loader.py", line 284, in __getattr__
    raise AttributeError(item)
AttributeError: get_key
  
  
• Generating a default RaaS config and outputting it to a temporary location with this command sudo raas genconfig /tmp/raas-default-config causes the following errors:
  
  2026-06-09 17:18:38 UTC,635 [org_id:None][pop.hub ][WARNING :214 ][MainProcess:######] Failed to load python module opt.saltstack.raas.lib64.python3.11.site-packages.raas.mods.db.local_kv at path /opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/mods/db/local_kv.py: ImportError('/usr/lib64/python3.11/lib-dynload/_sqlite3.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: sqlite3_deserialize')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/pop/loader.py", line 135, in python
    loader.exec_module(module)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 940, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/opt/saltstack/raas/lib64/python3.11/site-packages/raas/mods/db/local_kv.py", line 11, in <module>
    import sqlite3
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.11/sqlite3/__init__.py", line 57, in <module>
    from sqlite3.dbapi2 import *
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.11/sqlite3/dbapi2.py", line 27, in <module>
    from _sqlite3 import *
ImportError: /usr/lib64/python3.11/lib-dynload/_sqlite3.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: sqlite3_deserialize

Environment

• VCF Salt (Aria Automation Config) 8.18.3
• RHEL 9

Cause

• Python 3.11 is trying to use a newer feature on an older SQLite C-library that doesn't support it, causing the application to crash on startup.
• This ImportError is a known, recent package dependency bug in RHEL 9 (specifically tied to the RHSA-2026:19175 patch).
• The bundled Python 3.11 environment in Aria Automation Config 8.18.3 (RaaS) requires the sqlite3_deserialize C symbol, but the underlying system's SQLite library (libsqlite3.so) is too old and does not support it. This is a very common issue when running newer versions of RaaS on RHEL 8 (which ships with SQLite 3.26 by default) or an unpatched RHEL 9 (where the sqlite-libs package is out of date). Python 3.11 requires SQLite >= 3.27.2 for this symbol.
  
  

Resolution

1. Update the SQLite libraries to pull in the newer version containing the symbol
         sudo dnf update sqlite sqlite-libs -y
           or 
         sudo dnf install sqlite-libs -y
2. Restart the RaaS service
         sudo systemctl restart raas
3. Verify the service is now running without the local_kv AttributeError
         sudo systemctl status raas