Host preparation fails in NSX-T with the error: "Invalid host thumbprint"

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
When a standalone host is moved to a cluster, you see these symptoms:

• Host preparation fails.
• You see the error:
  
  Invalid host thumbprint.

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center
VMware NSX-T Data Center 2.x

Cause

This issue occurs when a standalone host is moved to a cluster, then the host certificate will be updated by the vCenter Server on the host and it takes some time for the inventory to be updated with new certificate. Before the new certificate is updated into the inventory, ongoing host-prep takes old certificate of the host and tries to communicate with the host and thus communication fails with the error 'Invalid host thumbprint'.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Wait for some time as the host should turn green automatically because the certificate is updated from the inventory and the host is eventually prepared.
2. Click on the resolve button which should trigger a host preparation again and host will be prepared if the certificate is updated from the inventory.