"Failed Start: An error occurred during initialization" error while accessing the vCloud Director H5 provider and tenant UI

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• Accessing the vCloud Director H5 UI fails after a successful login.
• An error is returned to the web browser similar to:
  
  Failed Start: An error occurred during initialization.

Environment

• Cloud Director 10.0
• Cloud Director 10.1
• Cloud Director 10.2

Cause

This issue occurs due to accessing applications through an unsupported public URL or poor connectivity.

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/320518/modifying-the-webappallowedorigins-confi.html

Resolution

Note: This KB deals with CORS issues prior to 10.3 For versions 10.3 and later, see Modifying the "webapp.allowed.origins" configuration on version 10.3 and later.

You can debug this issue by checking the cors filter "list" maintained by VCD.

Run the following cell-management-tool command to see the list of valid urls to access the VCD cells:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n webapp.allowed.origins -l

For example:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n webapp.allowed.origins -l

Property "webapp.allowed.origins" has value "https://example.com,xx.xx.xx.xx,http://xx.xx.xx.xx,http://example.com,https://xx.xx.xx.xx,https://xx.xx.xx.xx,http://xx.xx.xx.xx,xx.xx.xx.xx,https://example1.com,https://example2.com,https://example3.com"

Note: This list is stored as a comma separated string, with no spaces between entries. 

This list should contain:

• HTTP URL with IP and DNS entry for each VCD cell in server group
• HTTPS URL with IP and DNS entry for each VCD cell in server group
• IP for each VCD cell in server group
• Public address URL, used by load balancer fronting the VCD server group

Compare the specified URL with the above "list" to identify the issue.

To update the webapp.allowed.origins property, run this command:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n webapp.allowed.origins -v <comma_separated_list_without_spaces>

For example, if you want to include a new URL, such as https://example3.com to the existing cors list, use this command:

/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool manage-config -n webapp.allowed.origins -v "https://example.com,xx.xx.xx.xx,http://xx.xx.xx.xx,http://example.com,https://xx.xx.xx.xx,https://xx.xx.xx.xx,http://xx.xx.xx.xx,xx.xx.xx.xx,https://example1.com,https://example2.com,https://example3.com"

Note: The -v flag will update the configured URLS. The -v command will overwrite the values. So if you want to add a single URL, you must include the output from -l, then add in the additional URL at the end.