NSX-T 3.2 Add NSX Advanced Load Balancer Error Verification failed

Starting with NSX version 3.2 AVI load balancer integrates with NSX allowing users to deploy and configure AVI using NSX-T UI or API.

As seen in NSX-T 3.2 release notes AVI is called NSX Advanced Load Balancer and is integrated into NSX-T, the NSX-T Native Load Balancer is going away.

Excerpt of load balancer release notes below.

Load Balancing
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) Installation through NSX - VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) Controllers can now be installed through the NSX-T Manager UI, which provides a single pane for installation of all NSX components.
Cross-Launch VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) UI from NSX-T Manager UI - Launch VMware NSX ALB (Avi) UI from the NSX-T Manager for advanced features.
Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) User Interfaces displayed within NSX – Configure VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) from within NSX Manager.
Migrate Load Balancing from NSX for vSphere to VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) – Migrate Load Balancers to VMware NSX ALB (Avi) when using the Bring your own Topologymodel with the Migration Coordinator.
NSX-T native Load Balancer - Load balancing features would not be added or enhanced going forward. NSX-T platform enhancements would not be extended to the NSX-T native load balancer.
Load Balancing RecommendationIf you are using Load Balancing in NSX-T, you are advised to migrate to VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi), which provides a superset of the NSX-T load balancing functionality.
If you have purchased NSX Data Center Advanced, NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus, NSX Advanced, or NSX Enterprise, you are entitled to the Basic edition of VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi), which has feature parity with NSX-T LB.
It is recommended that you purchase VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) Enterprise to unlock enterprise grade load balancing, GSLB, advanced analytics, container ingress, application security and WAF.
Note: It is recommended that new deployments with NSX-T Data Center take advantage of VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) using release v20.1.6 or later and not use the native NSX-T Load Balancer.

So far all is great, in a greenfield deployment, you can have AVI integrated and use NSX-T UI and API to consume AVI.

Attempting to add NSX Advance Load Balancer appliance returns error

While trying to deploy NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi) error Verification failed for controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova bundle. (1) is experienced right away.

Trying to use the previous version controller-21.1.3-202-9049.ova returns the same error on logs but the UI does not move after 100% Uploading message is displayed.

Log files shows below errors with AVI controller-21.1.3-202-9049.ova and controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova

var\log\syslog

[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" errorCode="MP81027" level="ERROR" subcomp="manager"] [BUF NI] File count validation failed for controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova bundle. Bundle contains 3 files instead of 4.

[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" errorCode="MP81027" level="ERROR" subcomp="manager"] [BUF NI] Exception occurred while verifying bundle signature.

[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" errorCode="MP81027" level="ERROR" subcomp="manager"] [BUF] Verification of controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova failed



[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] Error in API /nsxapi/api/v1/repository/bundles/21142p3/upload-status?product=undefined caused by exception com.vmware.nsx.management.common.exceptions.FieldValidationException:  {"moduleName":"common-services","errorCode":255,"errorMessage":"Field level validation errors: {value undefined of property product is not one of the allowed values [SAMPLE, ALB_CONTROLLER, INTELLIGENCE]}","details":"Field level validation errors: {value undefined of property product is not one of the allowed values [SAMPLE, ALB_CONTROLLER, INTELLIGENCE]}"}

[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] [BUF] Updating bundle-upload status for ALB_CONTROLLER - 21142p3 bundleId
[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] [BUF] Getting bundle upload status file path for [/image/proton-tomcat/temp/alb_controller/21142p3.bundle_status] bundle-Id 21142p3

[nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] [BUF] Bundle upload status for product ALB_CONTROLLER and bundleId 21142p3 is URL: Bundle-Name: controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova Status: VERIFYING Detailed Status: Extracting controller-21.1.4-2p3-9009.ova bundle Percent: 100.0

Looking for the missing file

The investigation of this missing file started by downloading versions 21.1.2, 21.1.3 and 21.1.4 to discover the missing file controller.cert was found in version 21.1.2. The certificate is the file NSX is looking for.

With this finding, we used the OVA with 4 files and were able to proceed with the installation using the OVA file controller-21.1.2-9124.ova

After the first AVI controller is deployed, add two more to complete the deployment of the controller cluster.

Once the deployment is completed AVI needs to be upgraded to version 21.1.4 using the patch file. Running NSX-T 3.2.1 with AVI 21.1.2 is incompatible. For details check the Interoperability Matrix

This error was reported to VMware Support