Error occurred while trying to establish connection. Exact error: Problem communicating with the vCenter Server Appliance given as source host or the ESXi host where the source vCenter is deployed

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

An error may appear during VC upgrade stage 2.

Error occurred while trying to establish connection. Exact error: Problem communicating with the

vCenter Server Appliance given as source host or the ESXi host where the source vCenter is deployed

Cause

The connection from upgrading VC to source host or its hosting VC(the VC that manages source host) failed.

Please refer to the connection destination defined in Stage 1: the value you entered here represents that destination.

 

Resolution

• Access VC(vCenter) console from web console. (The SSH service is stopped by default.)
• Ping the connection destination from upgrading VC console. Ping is expected to be failed in this situation.
• If your connection destination is an IP address and if it's a FQDN verify connection to it
  • From the VM console of the new vCenter signed in as root run the following command: openssl s_client -connect FQDN.example.com:443 or openssl s_client -connect #.#.#.#:443 (Test FQDN and IP of both the esxi host housing the source vCenter and the source vCenter itself. Should be a total of 4 connection tests)
  • Check network connectivity between VC and connection destination following Troubleshooting virtual machine network connection issues and Intermittent network connectivity on ESXi or host disconnect issues.
• If your connection destination is an FQDN
  • Verify DNS resolution result with command below.

    nslookup <destination-FQDN>

  • If there's no DNS entry, please update DNS entry at DNS server, or add DNS entry at VC's /etc/hosts following Adding/Deleting/Editing a host entry on vCenter server or ESXi host using vi editor.
  • If there's a DNS entry, please check network connectivity between VC and connection destination following Troubleshooting virtual machine network connection issues and Intermittent network connectivity on ESXi or host disconnect issues.