NSX Manager install failing

[kjdfhaueiase]

Using nsx-unified-appliance-3.2.0.1.0.19232597-le.ova ...

It took an exact combination of datastore2, medium size, thick provision lazy zeroed to even get the VM to deploy without saying it could not take the OVF parameters.

Unfortunately booting showed an error as the very first line, then a failure to accept any of the passwords from the OVF ....
setting root password failed (use default)
setting local administrator password failed (use default)
setting audit password failed (user is disabled)

which of course resulted in "use default". I trust and hope VMware does not publish that lol.

what secret landmines should I avoid?

Machine pings but....

nmap nsxmanager Starting Nmap 7.80 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-11-09 15:05 JSTNote: Host seems down. If it is really up, but blocking our ping probes, try -PnNmap done: 1 IP address (0 hosts up) scanned in 3.15 seconds

So looks like no services running either.
Attempting login at the console failed.

vCenter

• 7.0.3
• Build: 20395099

ESX

•      VMware ESXi, 7.0.3, 20328353

Hardware:

• Processor Type: Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-3275M CPU @ 2.50GHz
  
• Logical Processors: 56
  
• NICs: 3
  
• Virtual Machines: 18

CPU: Using 2.59 out of 68.83 Ghz

Memory Using 108.89 GB out of 1.5 TB

Storage: Used 3.89 TB out of 13.97 TB (local storage)

Attaching VM log. Not sure what vsphere log I should attach; however, from the vcenter perspective, the deployment seemed to have succeeded.

[kjdfhaueiase]

I am sort of surprised not to see any responses as this seems like something everyone would hit.

Are people at the point where they have a pattern of working around these issues and it's well known? Maybe downloading the previous version of NSX?

I am pretty surprised how hard it is to get this OVA to deploy.

[dragance]

Actually this is really strange error because NSX OVA deployment, at least from my experience, should go really smooth. Did you try with some newer NSX version from 3.2 release maybe?

BR,

Dragan

[kjdfhaueiase]

Looking at the name of the download, it seems you are correct.

Unfortunately, the only 3 downloads I see for "unified appliance" are 3.2 on the VMUG download page; is one of the 3.1 bundles good?

File: nsx-lcp-3.1.2.0.0.17884003-rhel77_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 59 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.1.2.0.0.17884003-rhel79_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 62 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.1.2.0.0.17884003-rhel82_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 60 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.1.2.17884003-baremetal-server-win32_vs2017-le.zip
Size: 115 MB
File: nsx-edge-3.2.0.1.0.19232600-le.iso
Size: 2 GB
File: nsx-edge-3.2.0.1.0.19232600-le.ova
Size: 2 GB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-container-rhel76_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 69 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-container-rhel77_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 66 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-container-rhel78_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 66 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-linux64-bionic_amd64-le.tar.gz
Size: 84 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-linux64-sles12sp3-le.tar.gz
Size: 71 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-linux64-sles12sp4-le.tar.gz
Size: 69 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel76_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 69 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel77_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 66 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel78_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 66 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel79_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 69 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel80_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 67 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-rhel83_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 67 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-esx65-le.zip
Size: 31 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-esx67-le.zip
Size: 31 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-esx70-le.zip
Size: 45 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-linux64-bionic_amd64-le.tar.gz
Size: 84 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-linux64-focal_amd64-le.tar.gz
Size: 84 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-rhel79_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 69 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-rhel82_x86_64-le.tar.gz
Size: 67 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.19232595-baremetal-server-win32_vs2017-le
Size: 112 MB
File: nsx-unified-appliance-3.2.0.1.0.19232597-le.ova
Size: 9 GB
File: nsx-unified-appliance-3.2.0.1.0.19232597-le.qcow2
Size: 12 GB
File: nsx-unified-appliance-secondary-3.2.0.1.0.19232597-le.qcow2
Size: 193 KB
File: VMware-CC-upgrade-bundle-3.2.0.1.0.19232594-le.mub
Size: 6 GB
File: VMware-NSX-edge-3.2.0.1.0.19232600-le.nub
Size: 2 GB
File: VMware-NSX-upgrade-bundle-3.2.0.1.0.19232594-le.mub
Size: 8 GB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.1.0.19232595-baremetal-server-ubuntu-xenial_amd64-le.tar.gz
Size: 84 MB
File: nsx-lcp-3.2.0.19232595-baremetal-server-win32_vs2017-le.zip
Size: 112 MB 

[kjdfhaueiase]

Got some help on the internet. Here's what I found out so far:

-OVA deployment fails to set NSX manager password
-Log in with the most basic and dangerous set of credentials you can imagine at the console. Luckily, ssh is blocked until you change the password. That doesn't stop a lower role vsphere administrator from taking advantage if they want to; more of a problem in a larger organization
-Services do start after you've done that.  But the console login does seem different than the Web Login password.

I'm sort of thinking of logging a security bug.

I would appreciate you bringing this to their attention however I'm sure someone has done so already.