When AAF is enabled, startODL.oom.sh is using the variables SDNC_CONFIG_DIR and SDNC_STORE_DIR to point to /opt/app/osaaf/local which is incorrect. It should use SDNC_AAF_CONFIG_DIR and SDNC_AAF_STORE_DIR instead. Because of using SDNC_CONFIG_DIR and SDNC_STORE_DIR, the actual configuration files like aaiclient.properties etc that are present in /opt/onap/sdnc/data/properties (and is pointed to by SDNC_CONFIG_DIR in the helm charts) are not found (because of being overwritten by the script to /opt/app/osaaf/local) and hence results in failure to connect to AAI.

Reference - Issue raised by sylvain.desbureaux@orange.com