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Steve277
Contributor
Contributor

Problems connecting to vCenter from vCloud Director "Attach a vCenter"

Hey Folks,

I have built a vCloud director server from scratch and when I get to the point to attach the vCenter, I keep getting an error saying "Failed to connect to vCenter. Please check this is a valid vCenter server and the credentials are correct." It is an extremely frustrating error as everything is correct. I have tried it using the IP and the hostname and nothing works. I can ping vcenter by hostname from the vCloud server, so I know there is connectivity. Anyway, here is my setup:

vSphere/vCenter 5.0 (Build 469512)

Desktop Director 5.5.1 installed on CentOS 6 and I used the Basic Server template (I read later that some people use Web Server as the template, so that could be an issue)

vShield Manager Appliance 5.5.2

Installed vSphere Web Client and registered vCenter

Perhaps there is a compatibility issue with vSphere 5.0, but I didn't find anything stating that yet. Also, perhaps the firewall could be blocking the ports, but that doesn't seem likely as it is an outgoing connection. I did enable HTTPS using the system-config-firewall-tui command. I don't have any issue connecting to vCenter from the vShield Manager. I'm at a total loss here. I was so happy to get through the Linux build, that it was quite frustrating when something so simple derailed the project. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

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5 Replies
Steve277
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Folks,

I ended up rebuilding the VCD server from scratch using command-line only version of RHEL 6.1 this time. There were a few more wrinkles dealing with RPM files and I had to tweak the permissions of the sql account, but I got it to install. I was able to get to to connect to vCenter this time. I did however disable the firewall for the install, so that was most likely what was blocking access. After I got it working, I talked to a friend who has VCD built out in an enterprise environment and he says he had the same problem and just completely disabled the firewall on the VCD cell. I hope this helps someone else out.

Thanks,

Steve

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IamTHEvilONE
Immortal
Immortal

I don't think that system-config-firewall-tui is installed in newer versions of RHEL 6.x anymore, you have to pull it down from the respository ... and I'm not sure if it's the suggested method anymore.

I've been running RHEL 5.8 (i think), and all I have to do is enable ports on the diagram that show inbound traffic.  this is 443 (HTTPS) on both NICs, and if you have more than one cell i think you need to open 61616 & 61611 and a few others.

but for a single cell, you only need 443 open for inbound traffic on both network adapters.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103081...

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cfor
Expert
Expert

Another common issue that can cause connection issues is around certs.  (And we see almost always when using the vCenter appliance) -- You can disable vCenter cert checking in vCloud in the system admistation area.  If you do this, and then the connection works you know the cert is coming back as invalid.

ChrisF (VCP4, VCP5, VCP-Cloud) - If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
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campellos
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Steve277,

When I had this exact error message using "domain\vcenteradmin" did the trick.

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Steve277
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

I wanted to give an update on this issue. The problem for me was the firewall blocking the connection to vCenter even though it was an outgoing connection - go figure. I reviewed the TrainSignal documentation as well and they recommend disabling the firewall on the VCD build out. There may be some high security environments where you need the firewall enabled, but in most cases we would deal with, it is probably not necessary. I talked to a few other folks that have deployed vCloud director and they all disable the firewall. The problem I am having now is that the product is very temperamental and difficult to get working properly. I finally got it built out and then I had an issue where I couldn't import vApp templates - I traced the problem to corrupted QRTZ tables in the database. I'm not a big fan of the product so far. I don't mind complex, but when you do everything correct and it still doesn't work right, that's major frustration for me.

Cheers,

Steve

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