Error: Unable to determine if functionality is allowed/blocked in VCF 9.1

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

Introduction: During a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 greenfield deployment, the VCF Installer fails at the "Validate & Deploy" stage. The UI displays the error: "Unable to determine if functionality is allowed/blocked." This often occurs following a previous failed deployment attempt which leaves stale records in the platform database.

Symptoms:

• Error: "Unable to determine if functionality is allowed/blocked."
• VCF Installer reports connection timeouts to vCenter.
• Logs in /var/log/vmware/vcf/commonsvcs/vcf-commonsvcs.log show: java.net.NoRouteToHostException: route to host andTimeout connecting to <vCenter IP>

Attempting to clear the error by restarting the commonsvcs service does not resolve the issue.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1

Cause

The issue is caused by stale vCenter Server and ESXi host entries lingering in the platform database from the previous failed deployment attempt which causes the validation processes to attempt communication with non-existent or unreachable endpoints

Resolution

To resolve this issue, perform manual database cleanup OR a full re-deployment.

Note: Ensure there is a snapshot in place before proceeding with any database or destructive changes

1. Access the platform database via CLI: psql -h localhost -U postgres -d platform
2. Identify stale entries: select * from host; select * from vcenter;
3. Remove stale entries for the affected ESXi/vCenter hosts. 
   How to remove stale hosts from VCF
   Steps to manually remove vCenter
4. If manual cleanup is not feasible, perform a complete redeployment of the VCF Installer to ensure a clean state.
   
   However, since this is a greenfield deployment, it is better to do a complete re-deployment. 

Additional Information

• For log retrieval guidance, see Collecting Logs for VCF.
• If the issue persists, contact Broadcom Support: Contact Broadcom Support.