Error: "Exception: Failed to configure identity manager" when upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5 fails with this error:
  
  Encountered an internal error. Traceback (most recent call last): File "D:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.py", line 2018, in main vmidentityFB.boot() File "D:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.py", line 347, in boot self.configureIdentityManager(self.__idmRetryCount, self.__idmRetryInterval) File "D:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.p ", line 554, in configureIdentityManager raise Exception('Failed to configure identity manager') Exception: Failed to configure identity manager
   
• In the vmware-sts-idmd.log file, there is an error similar to:
  
  [ERROR] [IdmServer] IDM Server has failed to start java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Unable to load library 'ssleay32.dll': The specified module could not be found.
  
  Note: Thevmware-sts-idmd.log file is found in the VMware-VCS-logs-<year><month><day><hour><minute><second>.zip file which is created on on the vCenter Server after a failed upgrade.

 

• In vmidentity-firstboot.py_PID_stdout.log you see the following error,
  
  2016-11-30T14:53:56.901Z Exception: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.py", line 2018, in main vmidentityFB.boot()
  File "C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.py", line 346, in boot self.upgradeSystemDomainAdmins()
  File "C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\firstboot\vmidentity-firstboot.py", line 1968, in upgradeSystemDomainAdmins raise Exception('Failed to upgrade system domain admins.') Exception: Failed to upgrade system domain admins.

Cause

This issue occurs due to conflicting openssl libraries installed in the vCenter Server operating system.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting vCenter Server 6.5.

 

Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround:
Uninstall the application which published the conflicting Openssl libraries.

Additional Information

Environment variables listed under OPENSSL_CONF can also cause this issue.

 

For example:

 

If OPENSSL_CONF=C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin\openssl.cfg, is listed instead of the default libraries included with vCenter Server, you can check the environmental variables by opening a command prompt and running the set command on the vCenter Server.