Failure of cluster association with VMware vCenter or vSphere

Description

When ACOS is deployed on VMware ESXi, the ACOS cluster typically needs to be associated with the VMware vCenter or vSphere of the VMware vSphere cluster where it resides, to obtain virtualization information from the VMware vSphere cluster for troubleshooting and management.

When deploying ACOS on ESXi hosts, the access credentials of each ESXi host must be configured to enable the deployment and upgrade of I/O rerouting.

When the cluster fails to associate with VMware vCenter, the alert is triggered.

Alert message

• The cluster failed to associate with vCenter

• The following { .labels.count } SCVMs failed to bind to vSphere accounts on their respective ESXi hosts: { .labels.invalid_account_hostname }.

Impact

• The invalid ESXi account prevents AOC from obtaining hardware information and displaying it in the host details.

• The invalid ESXi account prevents the normal deployment and upgrade of I/O rerouting. (The ESXi account is only required for changes; I/O rerouting does not depend on it during normal operation.) If I/O rerouting is not successfully deployed, virtual machines on the affected ESXi host will be unable to rely on I/O rerouting for fault tolerance in the event of a storage NIC disconnection, SCVM anomaly, or storage service failure; recovery will only be possible through HA.

Cause

Possible causes include:

• The VMware vCenter connection information for the cluster is not correctly configured in AOC.
• The VMware vCenter service itself is experiencing an anomaly.
• AOC cannot connect to VMware vCenter.
• The ESXi host account is incorrectly configured.

Solution

• VMware vCenter association failure:

  This is typically caused by a vCenter password change that was not synchronized in AOC. Go to the cluster's Settings > vCenter Server page and verify that the configuration is correct.

  • If the configuration is incorrect, update it and monitor whether the alert clears within 1 minute.

  • If the configuration is correct but the alert persists:

    • Check whether vCenter has firewall rules blocking external access.

    • Log in to the AOC virtual machine via the command line and verify that vCenter can be pinged normally. If the network is unreachable, troubleshoot the network connectivity.

• ESXi account anomaly

  • Go to the cluster's Settings > ESXi page and confirm that the ESXi host configuration is correct.

  • On the ESXi host, confirm that the Allow SSH login option is enabled.