VDP 6.1.2 Plugin Not Available After A Fresh Deployment

So with 6.1.2 and even few older versions, there is an issue seen with most or some of the deployments. Once the new VDP appliance is deployed we do not see the respective plugin in the web client. These are the observations that I came across during troubleshooting:

Couple of things to note in my test:

1. vCenter is an appliance: Version 6.0 U2

2. VDP is 6.1.2

3. Tested with embedded and external PSC deployment

4. Tested with standalone and linked mode deployment. 

Web Client logs: 

Appliance Location: /var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/logs

Entry: 

[2016-04-06T19:27:13.272Z] [ERROR] -extensionmanager-pool-98735 70049419 100449 200340 com.vmware.vise.vim.extension.VcExtensionManager Package com.vmware.vdp2 was not installed! Error expanding zip file found at https://10.22.132.174:8543/vdp-plugin-package.zip. Make sure it is a valid zip file then logout/login to force another download. java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file at java.util.zip.ZipFile.open(Native Method) at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(Unknown Source) at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(Unknown Source) at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(Unknown Source) at com.vmware.vise.vim.extension.VcExtensionManager.downloadPackage(VcExtensionManager.java:856) at com.vmware.vise.vim.extension.VcExtensionManager$1.call(VcExtensionManager.java:671) at com.vmware.vise.vim.extension.VcExtensionManager$1.call(VcExtensionManager.java:663) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) at com.vmware.vise.util.concurrent.QueuingCachedThreadPool$QueueProcessor.run(QueuingCachedThreadPool.java:866) at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)

So here it is referencing that the com.vmware.vdp2 package was not installed as it was failed during the unzip operation.

MOB entry for VDP plugins: 

Location: https://vCenter_IP/mob

Plugin report:

com.vmware.vdp2

com.vmware.vdp2.config

Both the required plugin for 6.x are present. There is no requirement to invoke them.

vCenter Serenity Report:

Location: /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity

For 5.5
Location: /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity

Windows:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\vc-packages\vsphere-client-serenity

This folder was empty and there was no reference of the VDP plugin here. 

What has to be done next: 

1. Go to the following URL 

https://<VDP_IP>:8543/vdp-plugin-package.zip

2. This is going to download a plugin.zip folder. Extract this and you will get two files. 

3. In the vsphere-client-serenity, create a folder by the name com.vmware.vdp2-<vdp_version> and pasted these two files there.

Find your vdp plugin version number by clicking the com.vmware.vdp2 plugin in mob page and observe the version string.

**Now I have seen a case where the "vc-packages" and "vsphere-client-serenity" is not available at all. In this case, you can manually create these two directories**

4. Restarted web client service

# service-control --stop vsphere-client

# service-control --start vsphere-client

For Windows vCenter, restart the web client service from services.msc

5. Logged into web client. 

The plugin was available and connected successfully. 

I have also come across a situation where once the plugin is available and clicking the Connect option, the screen forever stays grayed out. I am currently testing this out more on my 6.0 U2 and will update a new article soon. 

Update 15-April-2016

If your VDP appliance is residing on a distributed switch, then the web client screen always stays grayed out when you click the "Connect" button.

Migrate the VDP appliance to standard switch and the appliance connects instantaneously.

Update 16-April-2016

If the VMs are residing on distributed switch, then the web client screen grays out when submitting a new backup job.

Workaround: Migrate VMs to standard switch until a fix is released or use a lower version of VDP.

Update 26-April-2016

Hot fix is available in this KB article here.