Error: Unable to push signed certificate to host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Adding ESXi host to the vCenter Server fails with error: Unable to push signed certificate to host
• Patching ESXi host fails with error: An error occurred during host configuration: /usr/sbin/esxupdate returned with exit status: 15
• ESXi logs display an old incorrect system time:
  var/run/log/esxupdate.log:
  

  1998-01-22T08:31:19Z Er(11) esxupdate[2103488]: vmware.esximage.Errors.InstallationError: VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.3-0.60.24585383, VMware_bootbank_loadesx_8.0.3-0.60.24585383: Failed to setup patcher for upgrade: ('VMware_bootbank_esx-update_8.0.3-0.60.24585383', 'Could not find a trusted signer: certificate is not yet valid')

• Hostd logs report certificate warning: vim.hostd.vimsvc.certificateManager.checkTime 
var/run/log/esxupdate.log
  

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: -----END CERTIFICATE-----YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: [Originator@6876 sub=Solo. Vmomi opID=<opID>: user=vpxuser : DOMAIN\USERNAME] Throw vim.fault.HostConfigFaultYYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: (vim. fault. HostConfigFault) {YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: faultMessage = (vmodl. LocalizableMessage ) [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: (vmodl. LocalizableMessage ) {YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS In(166) Hostd[2098446]: key = "vim.hostd.vimsvc.certificateManager.checkTime",

Environment

7.x, 8.x

Cause

ESXi system time not synced to vSphere Network.

Resolution

Confirm ESXi host system time

1. SSH into ESXi as root
2. Confirm date/time:
   date

Synchronize system time to vSphere Network 

For 7.x, see Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network
For 8.x, see Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network

• Manually configure the date and time via vSphere client
• Sync to NTP
• Sync to PTP
• Manage the NTP and PTP service status
• Delete a time synchronization service

Manually configure ESXi host/vCenter to use Network TIme Protocol (NTP)

• Configuring Network Time Protocol (NTP) on an ESXi host using the vSphere Client
• Configuring vCenter Server to use a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server

 

Additional Information