VCF 5.1.0 - Workload Domain Cluster Expansion fails if vDS/port groups were renamed post deployment.

[MC1903]

I renamed the vDS and port groups post deployment of my workload domain, as the defaults chosen by the UI wizard were awful.

Today, I tried to expand first cluster in that workload domain with 2 additional hosts and I am greeted by these 5 errors:

5 Errors
TOGGLE NOTIFICATION DETAILS
As per VCF inventory, EXTERNAL portgroup (VCF-edge_vcf-wld02-fd-edge_PG-vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01-External-1) associated with VDS (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01) is not found in the vCenter
As per VCF inventory, EXTERNAL portgroup (VCF-edge_vcf-wld02-fd-edge_PG-vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01-External-2) associated with VDS (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01) is not found in the vCenter
As per VCF inventory, MANAGEMENT portgroup (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01-pg-mgmt) associated with VDS (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01) is not found in the vCenter
As per VCF inventory, VMOTION portgroup (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01-pg-vmotion) associated with VDS (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01) is not found in the vCenter
As per VCF inventory, VSAN portgroup (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01-pg-vsan) associated with VDS (vcf-wld02-vcf-wld02-cl01-vds-01) is not found in the vCenter

Does SDDC manager use the 'display' name of an object and not it's vCenter Server MoRef for tracking existing objects?

Hopefully I can temporarily change the vDS/PG's back to their original naming for the expansion and then rename them back.

I don't recall there being a restriction with VCF that prevents vCenter Server object renaming.

EDIT: I think I need some new memory. There clearly ARE restrictions on vCenter Server object renaming - see: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/92541 

[toffaha1]

you need to update the VDS name on SDDC manager like this 

https://cloudblog.tech/vmware/vsphere/vcf-modify-sddc-manager-database-to-rename-objects/ 

[MC1903]

Thank you @toffaha1 

I hadn't seen that. I will give it a go, as this is a lab environment.

My point regarding MoRef's still stands then - why is SDDC manager tracking objects by their display name and not their MoRef?

Cheers,

M

[MC1903 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE:

I had to revert ALL of the vCenter Server objects that had been renamed back to their original awful UI deployment names. 

• Datacenter
• vDS & all Port Groups
• vSAN Datastore

No more UI based WLD deployments from now on.