While working with VMware vCloud Automation Center 5.2 I ran into a problem after renaming a resource pool in the vSphere inventory.
After requesting an inventory collection through Enterprise Administrator->Computer Resources->Data Collection->Inventory, vCAC shows that the collection has failed. vSphere objects are not updated; this can be very annoying and may lead to unintended behavior because vCAC is not displaying the correct information regarding the vSphere inventory.
The vCAC log viewer shows messages similar to:
DC: a36a90c9-4244-4e94-8959-e59535d85192: inventory: vcenter.brainstorm.local: Default Cluster: Error processing data collection response, StatusID = bac735a0-a4c5-4c7c-b36f-935327d2bcfa, exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
A short investigation of the database, specifically the dbo.ResourcePool table, showed that the old resource pool name (which was vCAC) is still in the database:
After changing the resource pool name to vCAC01, which is the new name in vSphere, the recollection of inventory data succeeds:
Although this workaround solved my problem, always be very careful with editing the database.
Similar problems with other type of objects are reported in this VMware forum message.
