In the process of integrating VMware vRealize Automation 7.3 with VMware vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 I received the following error when accessing the Business Management tab inside vRa:
Unable to retrieve spec for https://com.vmware.vcbm.vcbm.plugin.vproxy/businessmanagement-gadget.xml. HTTP error 504
As always tried restarting both vRa and vRb appliances with no luck. When accessing Services tab in vRa appliance management console , I was able to see that both pricing-api and vcbm-service are visible but not registered.
The first VMware KB article I found addressing the issue was 2077919 never the less it was for an older version and the fix was already configured on the 7.X version of vRb. The second VMware KB 2147243 seemed more relevant but after trying to unregister/register many times which by the way was showing successful on the vRb appliance , the services would not come up.
Most issues I have seen with VMware appliances revolved around 3 things: Time, Certs, and DNS so the next obvious step is to double check all on both appliances.
1- vRa Time/Zone can be viewed from the web management portal and changed accordingly as well:
2- vRb Time settings can be changed from the web management portal never the less the time zone must be changed from the appliance console:
Time seems to be in sync in terms of zone, NTP, and date/time.
3- DNS settings for vRa can be managed and changed from the web management portal:
Hostname was set to vra.diyarunited.com so I changed it to vRa only because the domain name would be appended by the “Domain Name” box value so make sure all is configured correctly. Also confirm DNS server in my case an AD server (192.168.10.29) has an A record and Reverse record for vRa appliance.
4- DNS settings for vRb can be managed and changed from the web management portal:
Verify that the settings other than IP/Hostname are filled exactly same as on vRb and a DNS A/PTR records are created on DNS server for vRb.
5- Certificates settings for vRa can be managed and changed from the web management portal:
I have my wildcard cert imported and assigned for my domain. Verified it is trusted from browser. If you have a PFX that you would like to convert to PEM cert and PEM key (without password) just download OpenSSL-Win32:
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Download “ openssl.cnf “ to c:\OpenSSL-Win32 and cmd: set OPENSSL_CONF=c:\OpenSSL-Win32\openssl.cnf
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openssl pkcs12 -in wildcard.pfx -nocerts -out key.pem –nodes
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openssl pkcs12 -in C:\OpenSSL-Win32\wildcard.pfx -nocerts -out key.pem –nodes
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openssl pkcs12 -in C:\OpenSSL-Win32\wildcard.pfx -nokeys -out cert.pem
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openssl rsa -in key.pem -out server.key
cert.pem is your certificate ( with Intermediate-Root if you exported them with the PFX ) and server.key is your private key ( without a passphrase ). Open with NotePad++, copy and paste into appliances.
6- Certificates settings for vRb can be managed and changed from the web management portal:
Certificates are identical on both and verified from browser are trusted and linked to Int & CA correctly.
7- Final check is to make sure that the bios settings on both appliances have the time set correctly same as NTP so boot each appliance from BIOS and change time/date to the same settings on NTP. Also verify that sync time with guest host is UN-checked from virtual machine tools options.
8- Now that everything seems to be in place, Lets first unregister the vRb services from vRa and try to re-register vRealize Automation inside vRealize Business for Cloud:
Note here that I have used the IP of the vRa instead of the hostname to avoid any DNS related issues.
8- After successful registration lets wait about 10 minutes and check services on vRa again ( No Restart) :
Login to vRa and navigate to Business Management tab to check if everything is accessible, First screen would ask for license key before proceeding:
Misconfiguration in DNS, Hostname, Network, and Time could be the cause of the issue. Another recommendation would be to add the hostnames/IPs locally on both appliances as well.
Salam 
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