"Unable to connect to vCenter..." error when configuring replications in Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Configuring a new replication fails in Cloud Director Availability, and you see the error:

Unable to connect to vCenter '99391072-####-####-####-##########26'.

• In the /opt/vmware/h4/cloud/log/cloud.log file on the Cloud Replication Management Appliance, you see a similar entry:
  2019-11-20 11:23:58.591 ERROR - [UI__aa08147d-558f-479a-a3a9-47ba5768f2ba_0y_S2] [job-12] com.vmware.h4.jobengine.JobExecution     : Task 55ee52c7-c017-442c-b327-e027abc31e01 (WorkflowInfo{type='start', resourceType='vappReplication', resourceId='C4VAPP-76c787c9-e735-4aff-8e19-00d05e4475ca', isPrivate=false, resourceName='null'}) has failed
  com.vmware.h4.replicator.api.exceptions.FailedToAcquireVcConnection: Unable to connect to vCenter '99391072-####-####-####-##########26'.

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vCloud Availability 3.0.x
VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x
VMware vCloud Availability 3.5.x
VMware Cloud Director 10.x

Cause

This issue occurs on the destination site when the instance UUID of a resource vCenter Server in Cloud Director has changed, but Cloud Director is not aware of the vCenter UUID change or Cloud Director has an incorrect value saved for the vCenter UUID.

Resolution

To verify that you are experiencing this issue, compare the current vCenter instance UUIDs for each resource vCenter Server with the UUIDs stored by Cloud Director.
 

vSphere 6.x Appliance

1. SSH to the vCenter Server Appliance and log in as root.
2. Show the vCenter instance UUID with the command:

grep instanceUuid /etc/vmware-vpx/instance.cfg
 

vSphere 6.x Windows Installation

1. RDP to the vCenter Server VM and log in with administrator credentials.
2. Click Start > Run, type cmd and press OK.
3. Show the vCenter instance UIUD with the command:

findstr "instanceUuid" "C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vmware-vpx\instance.cfg"
 

Cloud Director

1. Connect to the Cloud Director database.
2. List all of the resource vCenter Servers and their UUIDs:

select name, url, uuid from virtual_center;

3. Compare the values in the uuid column to the current instanceUuid values of the resource vCenter Servers.

If there is a mismatch between the Cloud Director database and the vCenter Servers then you have confirmed you are experiencing this issue.

To resolve this issue contact VMware Support and note this Article ID (76301) in the problem description. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.

Additional Information

• A similar issue can occur when the Lookup Service is misconfigured or not set on the Replicator component. For more information, see The Replicator appliance fails to connect to the vCenter Server when configuring replications in vCloud Availability 3.x.
• A similar issue can occur when the SSO user credentials used by vCloud Availability have expired. For more information, see The Replicator appliance fails to authenticate with the vCenter Server when configuring replications in vCloud Availability 3.x.