Not able to start certificate-manager to replace certificates

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

To replace the certificates using certificate manager.

Symptoms:

• When using certificate manager in VCSA 6.5.X/6.7.X/7.X, After entering the password it fails with the following: 

"Error while creating backup cert file for MACHINE_SSL_CERT"

 

VCSA 6.5

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 716, in <module>

    exit(main())

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 710, in main

    parse_arguments()

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 701, in parse_arguments

    get_machine_ssl_cert_to_dir()

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 573, in get_machine_ssl_cert_to_dir

    vecs.get_cert_file(Constants.MACHINE_SSL_STORE, Constants.MACHINE_SSL_ALIAS, oldcert)

  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/certificateManagerOps.py", line 438, in get_cert_file

    raise e

cis.exceptions.InvokeCommandException: {

    "resolution": null,

    "detail": [

        {

            "args": [

                ""

            ],

            "id": "install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke",

            "localized": "An error occurred while invoking external command : ''",

            "translatable": "An error occurred while invoking external command : '%(0)s'"

        },

        "Error while creating backup cert file for MACHINE_SSL_CERT"

    ],

    "componentKey": null,

    "problemId": null

}

 

 

VCSA 6.7

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 724, in <module>

    exit(main())

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 718, in main

    parse_arguments()

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 708, in parse_arguments

    get_machine_ssl_cert_to_dir()

  File "/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager", line 576, in get_machine_ssl_cert_to_dir

    vecs.get_cert_file(Constants.MACHINE_SSL_STORE, Constants.MACHINE_SSL_ALIAS, oldcert)

  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/certificateManagerOps.py", line 814, in get_cert_file

    raise e

  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/certificateManagerOps.py", line 810, in get_cert_file

    execute_command(cmd, quiet)

  File "/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/certificateManagerOps.py", line 301, in execute_command

    raise InvokeCommandException(msg)

cis.exceptions.InvokeCommandException: {

    "componentKey": null,

    "problemId": null,

    "detail": [

        {

            "localized": "An error occurred while invoking external command : ''",

            "id": "install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke",

            "translatable": "An error occurred while invoking external command : '%(0)s'",

            "args": [

                ""

            ]

        },

        "Error while creating backup cert file for MACHINE_SSL_CERT"

    ],

    "resolution": null

}

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

Cause

The certificate manager tries to backup to folder /var/tmp/vmware but that folder doesn’t exist.

Resolution

To solve the issue recreate the directory /var/tmp/vmware

rm -rf /var/tmp/vmware
mkdir /var/tmp/vmware