VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) – Converged, Hyperconverged Infrastructure & Virtualization

Password Operation Failed to Change the SSO password on an external PSC in VCF 3.11

October 28, 2022October 28, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Recently I came across an issue trying to change the SSO account (administrator@vsphere.local) password from the SDDC Manager using the Rotate password option under Security in VCF 3.11

I tried to Rotate the SSO password using the SDDC Manager, and got the following error:

However, Interesting thing is the sddc manager did change the SSO password in the backend

However, to check on this error, I dug a little deeper and saw the following error in the password rotate task:

I used the following command to check the operationsmanager.log to check the log in SDDC Manager

less /var/log/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/operationsmanager.log

The log also shows that the sddc manager is trying to change the sso credential (administrator@vsphere.local) on VRA endpoints

I had to open a VMware Support ticket and here is the answer I received:

“As per the Engineering team this issue is due to a misconfiguration of vRA endpoints. SDDC Manager is trying to change the administrator@vsphere.local on the VRA endpoints but VRA endpoints are configured with a different user (vcf-secured-user@vsphere.local). This issue is addressed in VCF 4.x”

What the VMware Engineering team is saying is that in VCF 3.10.x, 3.11 there is an issue with VRA as it is typically configured using a different tenant admin instead of using administrator@vsphere.local user to configure the endpoints in it. However, the SDDC manager is trying to change the administrator@vsphere.local credential on VRA endpoints. Hence this issue. Looks like this issue has been fixed in VCF 4.x

This resolves the issue at this time as we will be working to upgrade our VCF to 4.x soon.

Check for Passwords in SDDC Manager in VCF 3.x

July 22, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Recently I had to check the existing passwords in sddc manager in our VCF 3.11 environment and found out there is a simple way. Here it is.

SSH into your SDDC Manager using vcf user and go to the root prompt using su command and use the below command:

root@sddcmgr01 [home/vcf]# lookup_passwords

Screenshot:

This will bring up all the products which sddc manager keeps track of

Select any product and then you will have to provide the sddc secured user credentials which you provided at the time of deploying SDDC manager in the VCF environment. This credential is also used for the backup of SDDC Manager and NSX Components.

in this case ESXI was selected to display the esxi hosts credentials

This way, you can get all the passwords for all the components controlled by SDDC Manager in VCF 3.x

NOTE/Disclaimer: I had to Blur/Pixelate certain components in my screenshots as they are in a live environment.

Great VCF Troubleshooting Guide by my Fellow vExpert

February 24, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

I wanted to ping back one of the great article by one of my fellow vExpert Shank Mohan on his website about an unofficial VCF Troubleshooting guide. I have learned from this article and would like to remember this article and hence posting it back on my blog.

The Unofficial VCF Troubleshooting Guide v2 | LAB2PROD

Great VCF Troubleshooting guide by Shank Mohan

LCM Directory Permission Error When pre-checking for SDDC Manager Upgrade with VCF 3.11 Patch

February 19, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

I was getting ready to patch our environment from VCF 3.10.2.2 to VCF 3.11 as VMware has officially released a complete Patch for VCF 3.10.x this month, when I was performing the VCF Upgrade Pre-Check for the Management Domain, I came across this issue

The LCM Pre-Check Failed due to a directory permission issue for one of the lcm directory

Issue is that the pre-check says that the directory “/var/log/vmare/vcf/lcm/upgrades/<long code directory>/lcmAbout” owner is root but the owner needs to be user vcf_lcm

This is how I resolved the issue:

then go to the following directory “/var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm/upgrades/<long code directory as displayed in the lcm error on sddc manager>

chown vcf_lcm lcmAbout
chmod 750 lcmAbout

The above two commands will change the owner from root to vcf_lcm and also provide the required permissions to the folder so the pre-check can complete.

The full screenshot of what I performed is below:

Commands to change owner to vcf_lcm and to provide the required permissions for the folder lcmAbout

Once you perform the commands above, you can run the pre-check and this time it will proceed successfully as shown below

Hope this article helps if you come across this issue with sddc manager upgrade from VCF 3.10.2.2 to 3.11

VCF 3.x patch 3.11 for Log4J Vulnerability and Other Security Patches included

February 17, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

VMware has finally realeased an patch version for VCF 3.x and the version is 3.11. You can only download this as a patch form from the SDDC Manager. You can Upgrade to version 3.11 from 30.10.2.2 or VCF 3.5 or later.

VMSA-2021-0028.13 (vmware.com)

This Release VCF 3.11 includes the following:

Security fixes for Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: This release fixes CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046. See VMSA-2021-0028.
Security fixes for Apache HTTP Server: This release fixes CVE-2021-40438. See CVE-2021-40438.
Improvements to upgrade prechecks: Upgrade prechecks have been expanded to verify filesystem capacity, file permissions, and passwords. These improved prechecks help identify issues that you need to resolve to ensure a smooth upgrade.
This also resolves the following Security Advisory VMSA-2022-0004 which deals with several vulnerabilities in esxi 6.7 hosts
This also resolves the vulnerability in VCF SDDC Manager 3.x according to the security advisory VMSA-2022-0003
This version also addresses the heap-overflow vulnerability in esxi hosts according to the security advisory VMSA-2022-0001.2

The Updated product versions according to the BOM for VCF 3.11 are

Hope this post helps for the teams who have VCF 3.10.x and waiting for the long awaited log4j patch instead of an workaround.

Workaround instructions to address CVE-2021-44228 in vCenter Server 6.7.x – For VCF 3.10.x

December 14, 2021December 20, 2021Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

UPDATE: VMware has Updated the KB 87081 to Include the Script to remove log4j_class

I have taken these Workaround Instructions from the KB article 87081 and KB article 87095

For vCenter 6.7.x appliance in an VCF 3.10.x setup, some of the instructions in article 87081 don’t work and also in VCF 3.10.x since there are external PSC’s and the order to execute the instructions is as follows.

I am calling out VMware team to amend the steps for vCenter 6.7.x appliance in an non-HA configuration in the article 87081, especially for VCF 3.10.x installations.

For vCenter 6.7.x ; Steps to execute

vMON Service

Backup the existing java-wrapper-vmon file

cp -rfp /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/java-wrapper-vmon /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/java-wrapper-vmon.bak

Update the java-wrapper-vmon file with a text editor such as vi

vi /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/java-wrapper-vmon

At the very bottom of the file, replace the very last line with 2 new lines
- Originalexec $java_start_bin $jvm_dynargs “$@”Updated
  log4j_arg=”-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true”
  exec $java_start_bin $jvm_dynargs $log4j_arg “$@”
Restart vCenter Services

service-control –stop –all
service-control –start –all

Note: If the services do not start, ensure the file permissions are set correctly with these commands:

chown root:cis /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/java-wrapper-vmon
chmod 754 /usr/lib/vmware-vmon/java-wrapper-vmon

Analytics Service

NOTE:- The below workaround (Analytics service) is applicable for vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 3o and Older versions only. vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 3p is by default covered by vMON Service workaround.

Back up the log4j-core-2.8.2.jar file

cp -rfp /usr/lib/vmware/common-jars/log4j-core-2.8.2.jar /usr/lib/vmware/common-jars/log4j-core-2.8.2.jar.bak

Run the zip command to disable the class

zip -q -d /usr/lib/vmware/common-jars/log4j-core-2.8.2.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class

Restart the Analytics service

service-control –restart vmware-analytics

CM Service

Back up the log4j-core.jar file

cp -rfp /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar.bak

Run the zip command to disable the class

zip -q -d /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class

Restart the CM service

service-control –restart vmware-cm

Run the remove_log4j_class.py script

1. Download the script attached to this KB (remove_log4j_class.py)

2. Login to the vCSA using an SSH Client (using Putty.exe or any similar SSH Client)

3. Transfer the file to /tmp folder on vCenter Server Appliance using WinSCP
Note: It’s necessary to enable the bash shell before WinSCP will work

4. Execute the script copied in step 1:

python remove_log4j_class.py

The script will stop all vCenter services, proceed with removing the JndiLookup.class from all jar files on the appliance and finally start all vCenter services. The files that the script modifies will be reported as “VULNERABLE FILE” as the script runs.

Verify the changes

Once all sections are complete, use the following steps to confirm if they were implemented successfully.

Verify if the stsd, idmd, and vMon controlled services were started with the new -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true parameter:

ps auxww | grep formatMsgNoLookups

Check if the processes include -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true

Verify the Analytics Service changes:

grep -i jndilookup /usr/lib/vmware/common-jars/log4j-core-2.8.2.jar | wc -l
This should return 0 lines

Verify the CM Service changes:

grep -i jndilookup /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar | wc -l

This should return 0 lines

The remaining steps for Secure Token Service, Identity Management Service don’t work for vcenter 6.7.x in VCF 3.10.x (3.10.2.1) environment

——– So, after this Step, we will have to SSH into the External PSC and follow the below steps ———-

CM Service

Back up the log4j-core.jar file

cp -rfp /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar.bak

Run the zip command to disable the class

zip -q -d /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class

Restart the CM service

service-control –restart vmware-cm

Secure Token Service

Back up and edit the the vmware-stsd file

cp /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware-stsd /root/vmware-stsd.bakvi /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware-stsd

Find the section labeled start_service(). Insert a new line near line 266, just before “$DAEMON_CLASS start” with “-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true \” as seen in the example:

start_service()
{
perform_pre_startup_actions

local retval
JAVA_MEM_ARGS=`/usr/sbin/cloudvm-ram-size -J vmware-stsd`
$JSVC_BIN -procname $SERVICE_NAME \
            -home $JAVA_HOME \
            -server \
            <snip>
            -Dauditlog.dir=/var/log/audit/sso-events \
            -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true \
           $DAEMON_CLASS start

Restart the vmware-stsd service

service-control –stop vmware-stsd
service-control –start vmware-stsd

Identity Management Service

Back up and edit the the vmware-sts-idmd file

cp /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware-sts-idmd /root/vmware-sts-idmd.bakvi /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware-sts-idmd

Insert a new line near line 177 before “$DEBUG_OPTS \” with “-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true \” as seen in the example:

$JSVC_BIN -procname $SERVICE_NAME \
          -wait 120 \
          -server \
          <snip>
          -Dlog4j.configurationFile=file://$PREFIX/share/config/log4j2.xml \
          -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true \
          $DEBUG_OPTS \
          $DAEMON_CLASS

Restart the vmware-sts-idmd service

service-control –stop vmware-sts-idmd
service-control –start vmware-sts-idmd

Verify the changes

Once all sections are complete, use the following steps to confirm if they were implemented successfully.

Verify if the stsd, idmd, psc-client, and vMon controlled services were started with the new -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true parameter:

ps auxww | grep formatMsgNoLookups

Check if the processes include -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true

Verify the CM Service changes:

grep -i jndilookup /usr/lib/vmware-cm/lib/log4j-core.jar | wc -l

This should return 0 lines

The steps in VMware KB Article 87081 is for vCenter with Embedded PSC and the above steps are for the vCenter server 6.7 with an External PSC

Hope this article helps the Engineers who are working on this log4j Vulnerability and if they have VCF 3.10.x you can follow the above steps with an external PSC Configuration.

Visio Diagrams for VMware Validated Design for SDDC 6.0

November 30, 2020Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Looks like the new Visio diagrams and Stencils for VMware SDDC 6.0 are out at communities.vmware.com and created by the author Gary JBlake.

The link to download the diagrams is below:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Documents/Visio-Diagrams-for-VMware-Validated-Design-for-SDDC-6-0/ta-p/2782683

This has been referenced from communities.vmware.com forum under VMTN > SDDC > VMware Validated Designs > Validated Designs for SDDC 6.x > Documents
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Documents/Visio-Diagrams-for-VMware-Validated-Design-for-SDDC-6-0/ta-p/2782683

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) API Reference Guides

November 26, 2020February 16, 2022Pradeep AdapaLeave a comment

Here is the direct link to the API Reference Guide for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)

https://vdc-download.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/2d4955d7-fb6f-4a61-be78-64d95b951ccd/c6e26ae1-9438-4da0-bfc7-2e21d9046820/index.html#_overview

This is the Generic API Reference Guide for VCF instead of being Version Centric.

Updated – 2/16/2022

From Version VCF 4.3.1 (Non-VxRail), VMware has moved their API Guides to a new location which is a better format than before and more user friendly.

VCF 4.3.1 New API Reference Guide

VCF 4.4.0 New API Reference Guide

Updated – 1/25/2022

For Version Centric API Guides

VCF 3.10 API Reference Guide

VCF 4.0 API Reference Guide

VCF 4.1 API Reference Guide

VCF 4.2 API Reference Guide

VCF 4.3 API Reference Guide

VCF 4.3.1 API Reference Guide

NOTE: These Reference Guides and their versions are for NON VXRAIL implementations. They are valid for Regular VCF Implementation with VSAN Ready nodes.