"Could not find SSL/X509 certificate" error encountered when configuring the replicator in VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• During the Initial Setup wizard, an error similar to the following is displayed when clicking Test Connection after entering the Replicator API Service Endpoint address and the Replicator Service root password:
  
  Could not find SSL/X509 certificate from 'https://<API service endpoint address>:8043'.
  
  
• The current appliance was deployed with the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance role.
• The Replicator API Service Endpoint address is valid, resolvable, and accessible from the local appliance.
• The Replicator API Service Endpoint address is pointing to the local appliance.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.x

Cause

By design, the tunnel and the replicator services are not active and cannot be enabled on an appliance deployed with the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance role. When pointing to the local appliance, it will not respond to replicator API requests, which results in the error.

Resolution

For a production environment, install a Replicator Appliance and a Tunnel Appliance then complete the configuration, as detailed in the document below:

Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in the Cloud Director Site

If this is a laboratory or proof-of-concept implementation, a single Cloud Director Combined Appliance can be deployed, which would provide all required services for a VMware Cloud Director backed site.

Please note, a combined appliance is not supported for production environments and is for testing purposes only. Moreover, there is not a supported mechanism for converting an existing combined appliance implementation to a production deployment. Thus, VMware Cloud Director Availability would need to be redeployed with a production configuration when moving from testing, which would not retain the previously configured replications.

Additional Information

For additional information regarding VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance roles, please refer to the Deployment Types and Hardware Requirements section in the following document:

Deployment requirements in the Cloud Director site