"Couldn't establish a connection to the VM web console" while opening the VM console

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to open the VM Web Console from vCenter Server, getting an error "Couldn't establish a connection to the VM web console"

• Able to access the VM console directly from ESXi host.
• In vCenter Server SSH/Putty session, found few VC services are not running

• Logs under /var/log/vmware/certificatemanagement/certificatemanagement-svcs.log found few log entries related with "CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED"
• In linked vCenter environment,after certificate renewal on one of the nodes and the VMs on the other vCenter nodes have the issue with web console access throwing the error "Couldn't establish a connection to the VM web console"

 

 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

MachineSSL Certificate was expired

Resolution

Replace the expired Machine SSL Certificate.

Resolution 1:

• Take a backup of the vCenter Server.
• Take a snapshot of the vCenter Server.
• Take SSH/Putty session to the VC.
• Run below command
  • /usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager
• Select Option 1(Replace Machine SSL certificate with custom certificate) or Option 3 (Replace Machine SSL Certificate with VMCA Certificate).
• For more details, please refer Certificate Manager KB to replace the expired MachineSSL Cert.

Resolution 2:

• Download the vCert.py file to replace the expired MachineSSL Certificate.
• For more details, please refer vCert KB to replace certs.

Note:Ensure to restart all services on all vCenter nodes, if it is a linked vCenter environment.