VCF Diagnostic Tool reports 'VMDIR has legacy SYSTEM-DOMAIN artifacts' and fails to delete keys in vCenter Server 8.0.x

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When running the VCF Diagnostic Tool on a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 8.0.x that was originally upgraded over the years from vCenter 5.x, you encounter the following symptoms:

• The tool reports that VMDIR has legacy SYSTEM-DOMAIN artifacts
• Running the cleanup script with --dryrun identifies legacy registry values, but fails during actual execution.
• Error logs show an exception similar to: Exception: Failed to delete "SPSystemDomainAlias" from [HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]
• Manual attempts to delete the keys using lwregshell fail with error: 40713 - LWREG_ERROR_DELETE_DEFAULT_VALUE_NOT_ALLOWED Delete default value is not allowed

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Cause

This issue occurs because legacy SYSTEM-DOMAIN registry keys were imported during an older upgrade (e.g., from vCenter 5.x) but never changed. In the Likewise Registry environment, these keys are flagged as "default values," which prevents the standard deletion commands from executing successfully.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must first overwrite the default values of the legacy keys to an empty string before attempting deletion.

Prerequisites

• Take a file-based backup or a snapshot of the vCenter Server Appliance before proceeding.

Procedure

1. Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance via SSH as root.

2. Use lwregshell to set the offending keys to an empty value. Example commands:

   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainAlias ""
   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainBackCompat ""
   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell set_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainUserAliases ""
   

   After setting the values to empty, proceed to delete the keys. Example commands:

   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell delete_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainAlias
   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell delete_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainBackCompat
   /opt/likewise/bin/lwregshell delete_value '[HKEY_THIS_MACHINE\Software\VMware\Identity\Configuration]' SPSystemDomainUserAliases

3. Restart vCenter services or reboot the appliance to ensure changes are applied:

   service-control --stop --all && service-control --start --all

Alternative Fix

If the manual deletion still fails, follow the procedure to export, manually edit (as a text file), and reimport the registry base as described in KB 316130.