“Validation is enabled; SSL transport factory requires a valid certfile to be specified” error when logging in to Cassandra

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Logging into Cassandra fails.
• You see the error similar to:
  
  Validation is enabled; SSL transport factory requires a valid certfile to be specified. Please provide path to the certfile in [ssl] section as 'certfile' option in /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc (or use [certfiles] section) or set SSL_CERTFILE environment variable.
  
  
• The $VCOPS_BASE/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc file has missing or no configuration.
• The /storage/vcops/log/cassandra/check.admin.log file contains errors similar to:
  
  localhost:/storage/vcops/log/cassandra # $ALIVE_BASE/cassandra/apache-cassandra-2.1.8/bin/cqlsh --ssl --cqlshrc $ALIVE_BASE/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc
  Validation is enabled; SSL transport factory requires a valid certfile to be specified. Please provide path to the certfile in [ssl] section as 'certfile' option in /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc (or use [certfiles] section) or set SSL_CERTFILE environment variable.
  2017-05-31 10:58:42,270 INFO vmware.vcops.cassandra.check#_are_enough_nodes_up:214 - Total nodes up=1, total nodes required=1
  2017-05-31 10:58:42,272 ERROR vmware.vcops.cassandra.check#<module>:558 - Find more details in: /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/log/cassandra/check.admin.log
  2017-05-31 11:05:32,262 INFO vmware.vcops.cassandra.check#wait_for_cassandra:437 - No retry timeout set; will retry checking Cassandra status until the minimum required number of nodes are up
  

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.2.x
VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.x
VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.4.x
VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.3.x
VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.5.x

Cause

The configuration in $VCOPS_BASE/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc is required to log into Cassandra.

This issue occurs if there is missing or no configuration in vRealize Operation Manager 6.1 and later.

Resolution

To resolve the issue the configuration in $VCOPS_BASE/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc must be set correctly.

1. Log in to the affected analytics node as root via SSH or console.
2. Run this command to get the Cassandra user password and note the output.
   
   sed -nre 's/^cassandra\.user\.password\=\s*(.*)$/\1/p' /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/user/conf/persistence/persistence.properties
   
   
3. Open $VCOPS_BASE/user/conf/cassandra/cqlshrc file using a text editor.
4. Copy and paste these lines into the file:
   
   [connection]
   hostname = 127.0.0.1
   port = 9042
   client_timeout = 120
   
   [authentication]
   username = vcops_user
   password = encrypted_password
   
   [ssl]
   certfile = /storage/vcops/user/conf/ssl/web_chain.pem
   usercert = /storage/vcops/user/conf/ssl/web_cert.pem
   userkey = /storage/vcops/user/conf/ssl/web_key.pem
   validate = true
   
   
   Note: Replace encrypted_password with the password found in step 2.
   
   Example: password = nA1EryqYPn58V5+0MLqiZ6al
   
   
5. Save and close the file.