Error: "Check if Service Account is present for communication between SDDCM and NSXTM" during the SDDC Manager upgrade precheck

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

• An error during the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) lifecycle pre-check prevents upgrades when the system identifies a missing service account required for communication between SDDC Manager (SDDCM) and NSX Manager (NSXTM).

Symptoms The upgrade pre-check fails on the NSX-T Manager component.

• The pre-check report flags an error in the Configuration Drift section stating: Check if Service Account is present for communication between SDDCM and NSXTM.
• Integration status for NSX and SDDC Manager may appear healthy even while the service account is missing or out of sync.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x
• VMware SDDC Manager 9.x

Cause

The dedicated integration service account used by SDDC Manager to authenticate and communicate with NSX is missing from the environment.

Lifecycle management operations require this secure API access to validate configurations; if missing, the system aborts the upgrade workflow to prevent management failures.

Resolution

1. In SDDC Manager, navigate to Inventory > Workload Domain > Updates.
2. Open the failed pre-check status report and locate the Configuration Drift entry for the NSX service account.
3. Select the Create Service account NSX option and click Create.
4. Allow the system to complete the backend synchronization and provision the account.
5. Navigate back to the Updates tab and click Run Prechecks.
6. Once the status returns as successful, proceed with the VCF upgrade.