Symptoms: While deploying vSphere replication appliances the service won't start and receive a "Bad Exit Code:1" when trying to register the appliance with the vCenter Server.
Environment
VMware vSphere Replication 8.x
Cause
on hms-boot log you see:
"Unexpected error creating keystore: DNSName components must consist of letters, digits, and hyphens. Existing Error CMT command 'generate-certs' failed: 0"
Java keystore is unable to create the certs due "Ilegal characters".
Resolution
Remove any special character such as underscores from the VR hostname. Ensure as the error says only to have letters, digits, and hyphens.