Unable to sync VMware Identity Manager with AD

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

While running the sync from Directory in vIDM we get error: 

Response from connector: Failed to complete dry run.

 

In /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/logs/connector.log we see errors like below: 

2025-12-15T16:00:04,106 ERROR (resourceSyncTaskExecutor-3) [;;;] com.vmware.horizon.directory.ldap.dc.service.context.JNDIContextFetcher - Failed to connect to <LDAP-server>

javax.naming.CommunicationException: simple bind failed: <LDAP-server>

Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException

at sun.security.ssl.Alert.createSSLException(Alert.java:131) ~[?:1.8.0_352]

Caused by: java.security.cert.CertificateException

at com.vmware.horizon.dirsync.ExplicitX509TrustManager.checkServerTrusted(ExplicitX509TrustManager.java:108) ~[commons-connector-0.1.jar:3.3.7.0 Build 21173100]

2025-12-15T16:00:04,107 ERROR (resourceSyncTaskExecutor-3) [;;;] com.vmware.horizon.directory.ldap.dc.service.DirectoryConnectService - AD connection failed for <LDAP-server>

com.vmware.horizon.directory.ldap.exceptions.DirectoryConnectionException: Could not connect to the Domain Controller.

at com.vmware.horizon.directory.ldap.dc.service.context.JNDIContextFetcher.handleLdapExceptions(JNDIContextFetcher.java:130) ~[adapter-ldap-0.1.jar:3.3.7.0 Build 21173100]

Environment

VMware Identity manager 3.3.7

Cause

Certificate changed on Active Directory end but not updated in vIDM

Resolution

1. Login to vIDM UI using admin credentials from System domain.
2. Go to Identity and Access Management -> Directories and select your AD which has sync issues.
3. Scroll down in the Settings tab and on the Encryption section update the SSL certificate field with the new Root certificate of the AD in PEM format.
4. Provide Bind user password and click Save