Error: "Update not possible while vCenter is in failed state" in VCF Operations

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• Attempts to update ESXi hosts via Fleet Manager in VCF Operations fail, prompting the UI to report an error message:
  Update not possible while <vCenter_name> is in failed state.
• In the SDDC Manager UI, the certificate tab for the vCenter displays an error 
  
• The vCenter remains accessible and functional to end users, but VCF Operations blocks lifecycle management (LCM) tasks.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x

Cause

A background workflow, such as a certificate installation or password rotation, failed to update the management plane status upon completion. The vCenter entity is locked in an ERROR state within the SDDC Manager platform database, which prevents the LCM engine from initiating host patching pre-checks or updates.

Resolution

Perform the following steps to manually reconcile the vCenter status and resume update operations.

1. Take a snapshot of the SDDC Manager appliance.
2. SSH to the SDDC Manager appliance as vcf and elevate to root.
3. Access the platform database to identify the vCenter with the stale status: psql -h localhost -U postgres -d platform -c "select id, vm_hostname, status from vcenter where status!='ACTIVE';"
4. Update the status to ACTIVE for the impacted resource ID: psql -h localhost -U postgres -d platform -c "update vcenter set status='ACTIVE' where id='####-####-####-####';"
5. Restart the SDDC Manager services to apply the database changes to the UI: /opt/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/scripts/cli/sddcmanager_restart_services.sh
6. Log in to the VCF Operations UI.
7. Navigate to Fleet Management > Lifecycle > VCF Management.
8. Locate the component and trigger an Inventory Sync to clear the "failed state" warning.
9. Proceed with the ESXi host update pre-checks.