Registering or re-registering the VMware vSphere Replication 8.x appliance fails with the error: The vCenter Server is not correctly registered in LookupService after replacing the vCenter Server certificates

Products

• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot attempt to register the vSphere Replication appliance with vCenter Server through the VAMI.
• Attempting to register the vSphere Replication appliance with vCenter Server through the VAMI fails.
• You see the error:
  
  Unable to obtain SSL certificate: The vCenter Server <VC server> is not correctly registered in LookupService
   
• In the /opt/vmware/hms/logs/hms.log file displays an error similar to:
  
  HMS SERVER ERROR
  
  org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sslHelperFactory' defined in class path resource [META-INF/hms.xml]: Cannot resolve reference to bean 'hmsThu
  mbprintVerifier' while setting constructor argument; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'selfPairingChecker' defined in class
  path resource [META-INF/hms.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
   
• The VMware vCenter Server SSL certificates are using the vSphere 6.7 Certificate Manager

Environment

VMware vSphere Replication 8.x
VMware vSphere Replication 6.0.x

Cause

The issue occurs because the SSL certificate thumbprint registered in the Lookup service is different from the SSL certificate presented by the vCenter Server service.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, update the vCenter Server SSL certificate thumbprint with the Lookup service and then restart the VMware vSphere Replication appliance through the vCenter Server.

To update the vCenter Server SSL certificate thumbprint with the Lookup service:

1. For more information, see vCenter Server certificate validation error in vCenter Site Recovery Manager and other solutions that run on a separate system (2109074).
2. Restart the VMware vSphere Replication appliance through the vCenter Server.
   
   Note: If you fail to power off the vSphere Replication appliance, the registration fails in the VAMI with the error:
   
   Bad exit code: 1

Additional Information

vCenter Server certificate validation error for external solutions in environments with Embedded Platform Services Controller (2121689)