NullPointerException errors in provisioning-service-app with VMware Aria Operations integration in VMware Aria Automation

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

The system experiences continuous NullPointerException errors in the provisioning-service component. These errors appear in a continuous loop within a scheduled background task and are not tied to any specific user deployment activity.

While there are no visible functional issues from a user perspective and provisioning operations continue to work as expected, this issue results in:

• Continuous log noise in the environment.

• Increased Garbage Collection (GC) activity and unnecessary CPU overhead.

• Potential difficulty in identifying real issues due to log flooding.

The following error is repeatedly observed in the provisioning-service-app.log:

2026-06-15T14:05:50.756Z ERROR provisioning [host='provisioning-service-app-<ID>' thread='vrops-api-elastic-thread-3598' user='<USER>' org='<ORG_ID>'] c.v.o.a.client.internal.RestClientProxy.<init>:120 - Failed to create a valid JAXB instance: {
}
        java.lang.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext.createUnmarshaller()" because "jc" is null
                at com.vmware.ops.api.client.internal.RestClientProxy.<init>(RestClientProxy.java:117) ~[vcops-suiteapi-client-1.31.5-vra-jakarta.jar:na]
                at com.vmware.ops.api.client.internal.DefaultClient.<init>(DefaultClient.java:84) ~[vcops-suiteapi-client-1.31.5-vra-jakarta.jar:na]
                at com.vmware.ops.api.client.ClientFactory.newClient(ClientFactory.java:19) ~[vcops-suiteapi-client-1.31.5-vra-jakarta.jar:na]
                at com.vmware.ops.api.client.Client$ClientConfig.newClient(Client.java:458) ~[vcops-suiteapi-client-1.31.5-vra-jakarta.jar:na]
                at com.vmware.vrops.endpoint.gateway.VropsClientManager.buildClient(VropsClientManager.java:136) ~[vrops-endpoint-0.0.3-161-7a81ec4.jar:0.0.3-161-7a81ec4]
                at reactor.core.publisher.MonoCallable$MonoCallableSubscription.request(MonoCallable.java:137) ~[reactor-core-3.5.17.jar:3.5.17]
                at reactor.core.scheduler.SchedulerTask.call(SchedulerTask.java:68) ~[reactor-core-3.5.17.jar:3.5.17]
                at io.micrometer.core.instrument.internal.TimedCallable.call(TimedCallable.java:51) ~[micrometer-core-1.11.12.jar:1.11.12]
                at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) ~[na:na]
                at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$ScheduledFutureTask.run(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:304) ~[na:na]
                at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:840) ~[na:na]

 

Environment

 

• VMware Aria Automation 8.18

• VMware Aria Operations 8.18.6

• VMware Aria Operations integration configured within VMware Aria Automation (Infrastructure → Integrations)

 

Cause

This is a known SDK compatibility issue affecting the VMware Aria Operations adapter within VMware Aria Automation 8.x environments.

Resolution

This error is non-impacting and can be safely ignored.

The issue is resolved in VCF Automation version 9.x and higher. It is also targeted to be fixed in an upcoming VMware Aria Automation 8.18.1 release.

 

Workaround: If you are unable to upgrade immediately, you can temporarily stop the errors by disabling the VMware Aria Operations integration in VMware Aria Automation. Note that while disabling the integration halts the log flooding immediately, re-enabling the integration will cause the errors to return.

Additional Information

• VMware Aria Automation Release notes