Missing accounts in re-deployed SDDC manager prevents VCF Automation integration

Products

• VCF Automation

Issue/Introduction

After a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) SDDC Manager instance is re-deployed, VCF Automation integration fails. When navigating to the VCF Automation UI under Administration > VCF Instances, you may observe that the re-deployed SDDC Manager instance is missing its service account (e.g., svc-vcfa-sddc-manager-xxx-x). Because of this missing account, you cannot discover connections to workloads in the re-deployed SDDC Manager or refresh the VCF instance.

Additionally, the UI does not provide an option to manually update the password for a manually created service account, leaving the instance in a disconnected state.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x (VCF)

• VCF Automation 9.X

Cause

OpsLCM deploys the SDDC Manager instance and handles its lifecycle, while VCF Automation only tracks the vCenter and NSX lifecycles.

When an old SDDC Manager is decommissioned or re-deployed, the stale SDDC Manager endpoint remains in the database unless explicitly deleted.

This stale database entry conflicts with the new instance, preventing VCF Automation from properly registering the re-deployed SDDC Manager and creating the necessary service accounts.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must purge the stale SDDC Manager instance from the database using the API and retry the failed lifecycle task.

1. Locate the ID of the old, decommissioned SDDC Manager instance by running the following API GET request:

GET /1.0.0/vcfInfraEndpoints

 

2. Purge the stale instance by executing the following API DELETE request, replacing {id} with the exact ID retrieved in Step 1:

DELETE /1.0.0/vcfInfraEndpoints/

 

3. In the VCF Automation UI, refresh the Connections page to ensure the old instance is removed and active components are properly displayed.

4. Navigate to Operations > Build > Lifecycle > VCF Management > Tasks.

5. Locate the failed task related to the SDDC lifecycle (e.g., an error stating Refresh component SDDC lifecycle xxxx stuck on the subtask create service account for VCF Automation).

6. Click Retry on the failed task. The service account will now be created successfully.

7. Verify that the VCF instance and connections are successfully connected to VCF Automation.

Additional Information

If you are missing any vCenter or NSX instances in the Connections page after performing these steps, or if the vCenter Server is in a disconnected state, you may need to perform a Rotate Service Accounts action from the UI to restore full connectivity.