vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 Telegraf Agent fails to install on Windows with UAC enabled

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The vRealize Operations Manager 7.5 Application Remote Collector Telegraf agent fails to install on a Windows guest when UAC is enabled.
• The Telegraf agents fails to install with a Download Failed error.

Environment

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 7.5.x

Cause

Agent installation on Windows guests requires elevated privileges to access Windows protected resources, for example, Service Registry. The protected resources cannot be accessed by any domain user, even if the user is a member of the local Administrators group. The UAC in Windows exists for a purpose to protect system resources from malicious users and malware that take control of the system and causes damage to the system or all systems attached to the domain. UAC prevents all these kinds of destructive activities by popping up an approval wizard and blocks the process until the user approves the wizard manually.

A local Administrator user or SYSTEM user can modify the system resources where UAC is not applicable. The local Administrator user can be used to install Telegraf agents successfully, however, in many enterprises, the user is locked or random passwords are set as a recommended best practice. Hence, the Administrator use cannot be used as an install user.
Thus, the only choice would use a domain user who is a member of the local Administrators group.

In the current release version 7.5, the agent install/uninstall requirement is to use a local Administrator account or domain account who is a member of the local Administrators group with UAC disabled. Install/Uninstall will fail if a domain user does not meet the above requirements.

Resolution

Attempt the agent install normally and wait for the install status to show as Failed in the vRealize Operations Manager UI.  Use the uaf-bootstrap-launcher.bat file to continue the agent installation on UAC enabled Windows guests.

1. Log into the Windows guest as the install user specified in vRealize Operations Manager.
2. Open the Windows Run dialog, enter %tmp%, and click OK.
3. In the Explorer window, navigate one directory up so you're in the Local directory of the install user.

Example: C:\Users\Install_User\AppData\Local

4. Find the newest folder named VMware-UCP_Bootstrap_Scriptsvmware.

Note: Ensure the Administrator user is granted read/write/execute permissions to this folder.
Note: If you are unable to find this folder, try the C:\Windows\Temp folder.

5. Download the attached uaf-bootstrap-launcher.bat file, and copy it to the VMware-UCP_Bootstrap_Scriptsvmware directory.
6. Open a Command Prompt; choosing to Run as administrator.
7. In the Command Prompt window, navigate to the directory in step 3.
8. Run the command below to continue the install of the Telegraf agent:

cmd /c uaf-bootstrap-launcher.bat > uaf-bootstrap-launcher.log 2>&1

Note: Results of the uaf-bootstrap-launcher.bat file are stored in the uaf-bootstrap-launcher.log file.

Check the Agent Last Operations status in the vRealize Operations Manager UI.

Workaround:
Use the Domain Administrator as the Install User, if available.
Example: Administrator@domain