VCF 9.1 deployment fails during VCF Management Services bootstrap with error "Failed to bootstrap VCF services runtime"

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

• During a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 deployment, the process halts during the VCF Management Services bootstrap phase.
• The VCF Installer UI displays the following error: Failed to bootstrap VCF services runtime (Reference Token: <Token>)

The VCF Installer logs record a validation error similar to the following:

PUBLIC_VSP_CLUSTER_BOOTSTRAP_FAILED_DETAILED VCF Management Services cluster bootstrap fail

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.0

 

Cause

This issue occurs during the initialization validation stage when the Bootstrap VM fails to resolve the specified FQDN via the designated DNS servers.

Common triggers include:

• Missing forward (A) or reverse (PTR) records on the DNS server.

• Unreachable or invalid DNS servers are defined locally on the VCF Installer appliance OS. If the appliance attempts to query an invalid secondary DNS server that cannot resolve the records, the validation fails, even if the primary DNS is functioning correctly.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, correct the DNS configuration and retry the deployment.

1. Ensure that valid forward (A) and reverse (PTR) DNS records exist for all FQDNs used in the VCF deployment.

2. Review the DNS servers configured on the VCF Installer appliance OS. Ensure all configured DNS servers are online and can resolve the deployment records. Remove any unreachable or invalid DNS server entries from the appliance network configuration.

3. Verify name resolution (both forward and reverse) from the VCF Installer appliance using diagnostic tools such as nslookup or dig.

4. Retry the deployment task directly from the VCF Installer UI.