get-vm -tag tagname no longer working

[jrr001]

get-vm -tag Backup_Setup_Request or other tag request return this error for all vmadmins that it has worked for. vcenter 7.0u3J not working, vcenter 7.0u3I works. Been working and just stopped

et-vm -tag Backup_Setup_Request
get-vm : 4/21/2023 9:11:05 AM Get-VM com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.unauthenticated {'messages': [com.vmware.vapi.std.localizable_message {'id': com.vmware.vapi.endpoint.method.authentication.required,
'default_message': Authentication required., 'args': [], 'params': , 'localized':}], 'data': , 'error_type': UNAUTHENTICATED, 'challenge': Basic realm="VAPI endpoint",SIGN
realm=aae8c893a960e90321598339928e6e7b6acaec07,service="VAPI endpoint",sts="https://vcenter.xx.xx.xx/sts/STSService/vsphere.local",SIGN
realm=f30c097f56e939aacddb0290232ef66166802bbc,service="VAPI endpoint",sts="https://vcenter.xx.xx.xx/sts/sts/STSService/vsphere.local",SIGN
realm=ddaf37b026cf0a6812d24e6630e138618670a4d2,service="VAPI endpoint",sts="https://vcenter.xx.xx.xx/sts/sts/STSService/vsphere.local"}.

Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 5.1.19041.2673
PSEdition Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion 10.0.19041.2673
CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1

[LucD]

Still working for me with PowerCLI 13.1
But that 'unauthenticated' error often indicates an issue with your PS session or the Inventory Service on the VCSA.

Did you already stop/start your PS/PowerCLI session?
Is the Inventory Service running on the VCSA?
Can you restart the INventory Service?
Can you restart the VCSA?

[ThePusher]

We are also experiencing this issue! We are currently on vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3l

We have been restarting all the services to resolve the issue.....and only notice it because out daily reports depend on tags to report capacity across our environment. 

Is there a more permanent resolution to this issue?

Thanks!

[LucD]

Can you try with the CisTag module?
See New Community Module for Tag Management - VMware PowerCLI Blog

[BrettK1]

We also are experiencing this issue with 7.0u3J (using get-tag).
Tested from multiple machines with PowerCLI 12.1, 13, 13.1.

I opened a ticket with VMWare, who also experienced errors with get-tag (though upon review, the error they received was different from ours), and suggested opening a ticket with the SDK team.  I have inquired further about that.

Edit: 'Can you try with the CisTag module?'  - I have not tried this, but as I was just recently reading about the Rest API tagging system and wanted to try it, I may grab this for testing

[ThePusher]

our ticket lead us to increasing the heap memory of the vmware-infraprofile service....we had to go through a couple levels of engineer to get to that point. Good luck!

[LucD]

If GSS claims you need a Developer Support contract for PowerCLI support, that is not true.
See this reply from the PowerCLI Team Leader
Solved: Re: Powercli NSX module not loading expression for... - VMware Technology Network VMTN

[BrettK1]

Amusingly, GSS said 'You need SDK support' AFTER I sent him those links, and that this should clearly fall under 'Cmdlets are not working as documented’.  Silly for our TAM to have to deal with things like this.

[LucD]

Perhaps your TAM should contact Kamen 😉

[BrettK1]

I suggested he sick Kamen on GSS 🙂

[SanjayJadhav1]

This will work in errors:

Get-Tag : 10/4/2023 10:58:13 PM  Get-Tag    com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.unauthenticated {'messages': [com.vmware.vapi.std.localizable_message {'id': 
com.vmware.vapi.endpoint.method.authentication.required, 'default_message': Authentication required., 'args': [], 'params': , 'localized':}], 
'data': , 'error_type': UNAUTHENTICATED, 'challenge': Basic realm="VAPI endpoint",SIGN realm=bf65334c0a59e5278a13e2db7d6c81fe9945793c,service="VAPI 
endpoint"

Increasing the memory for the vmware-infraprofile service should prevent future OOM(Out of memory) messages

Get the current memory allocated to the service
# cloudvm-ram-size -l | grep vmware-infraprofile

Example: vmware-infraprofile = 332

Doubling the memory should be enough to fix the issue, however in case it does not fix it you can further increase the memory.
# cloudvm-ram-size -C 664 vmware-infraprofile

Check the memory status again to confirm the change
# cloudvm-ram-size -l | grep vmware-infraprofile

Example: vmware-infraprofile = 684

Then restart the infraprofile service
# service-control --stop vmware-infraprofile && service-control --start vmware-infraprofile

Workaround
Restart the image infraprofile service may fix the issue until the service has OOM again
# service-control --stop vmware-infraprofile && service-control --start vmware-infraprofile

[antize1]

Just ran into the same error this week. Get-Tag has abruptly stopped working. It takes a long time to run and returns this (note place holders for realm/FQDN) -

Get-Tag: 10/19/2023 1:45:25 PM Get-Tag com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.unauthenticated {'messages': [com.vmware.vapi.std.localizable_message {'id': com.vmware.vapi.endpoint.method.authentication.required, 'default_message': Authentication required., 'args': [], 'params': , 'localized':}], 'data': , 'error_type': UNAUTHENTICATED, 'challenge': Basic realm="VAPI endpoint",SIGN realm=<ID>,service="VAPI endpoint",sts="https://<FQDN>/sts/STSService/vsphere.local"}.

I saw the community module that calls the REST API so I tried out my own version using the REST API and it works fine. So I'm not sure what else the PowerCLI Get-Tag cmdlet is doing that is causing the problem... Here's my little test that works fine - 

function Get-vSphereTag {
	param ([string] $vSphereApiSessionID)
	$api_header = @{'vmware-api-session-id' = $vSphereApiSessionID}
​
	Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "$api_base_url/cis/tagging/tag" -Headers $api_header | ForEach-Object {
		$_ | ForEach-Object {
			Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "$api_base_url/cis/tagging/tag/$_" -Headers $api_header
		}
	}
}

[RichardN1]

how much did you increase the memory allocation for vmware-infraprofile? did you see some errors in vcsa logs related to this (vpxd, infraprofile ..etc)? did you see this happen since then?

[kamennikolov]

This issue has been fixed in PowerCLI 13.2, so if you update you won't need to increase the memory allocation.

[RichardN1]

thank you Kamen, looks promising, I'll will give it a go