NSX host installation fails at 48% Waiting for connection to Managers

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• Installing NSX on Host hangs at 48% and then fails
• Clicking on "Install Failed" and then "View Errors" shows the error
        Failed to install software on host. Failed to install software on host. Time out waiting for host to join NSX Manager.
• NSX Manager log, /var/log/vmware/appl-proxy-rpc.log, has an error similar to this example
  <DATE>T20:47:11.371Z Manager NSX 2280 - [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" subcomp="appl-proxy" s2comp="nsx-net" tid="2344" level="ERROR" errorCode="NET1111"] Certificate validation failed: 9-certificate is not yet valid

Environment

VMware NSX-T 3.x
VMware NSX 4.x

Cause

When the NSX certificate is created on the ESX host it has a "Valid From" based on the time of the ESXi server. If the ESXi server has a time set in the future, the certificate will not be valid until that time and so it fails the NSX Manager certificate validation.

Resolution

Configure NTP on the ESXi host to ensure time is accurate, see KB Configure Network Time Protocol.

or set the time manually to the correct time

esxcli system time set -d 10 -H 21 -m 51 -M 03 -y 2025