Specified key is not a valid pkcs8 encoded private key error when updating VMware Cloud Director Certificates

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to update certificates in VMware Cloud Director the following error is received in the UI:
Bad request: Specified key is not a valid PKCS8 encoded private key

The log details can be confirmed in /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/cell-management-tool.log with the following error:

Specified key is not a valid pkcs8 encoded private key

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.6.x

Cause

PKCS8 Key file is required. If not supplied it will need to be converted.

Resolution

Using the command line on the appliance or on another computer with the openssl package run the following command on the .key file. Then use the resulting file with the certificate process.

 openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -outform PEM -in <Key File Name.key> -out <New Key File Name>.key