SSL CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error when installing Virtual Analyst

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Desk Manager
• ServiceDesk

Issue/Introduction

When using the automated installation of Virtual Analyst 17.4 it did not complete successfully.

The installer.bat script fails looking for a certificate that isn't described anywhere in the documentation:

  File "C:\Users\<userid>\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\lib\ssl.py", line 1309, in do_handshake
    self._sslobj.do_handshake()
ssl.SSLCertVerificationError: [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate (_ssl.c:1131)

Any ideas what certificate is required here?

Environment

Service Desk 17.4 RU2 and up

Windows Server

Cause

Before starting the installer.bat I had previously installed Python 3.8.10.  Even though it was the correct version of Python, the out of the box installer does not install some certificates that are packaged with Python.  The installer.bat takes care of this for you.

Resolution

I retried the installation without first installing Python and this time it completed successfully.