Error: "500 Internal Server Error" configuring Standby Global Manager in NSX Federation

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• After performing an unplanned failover in an NSX Federation environment, the previous Active Global Manager cluster comes back online with a status of "none".
• Attempts to make the old cluster the Standby site fail with the following error message:

  "{"message": "The server has either erred or is incapable of performing the requested operation. Error occurred while trying to process the request", "code": "500 Internal Server Error", "title": "Internal Server Error"}

Cause

This error may occur due to an incorrectly formatted certificate thumbprint being supplied during the "Make Standby" operation. Extracting the certificate thumbprint directly from a web browser typically provides the string in uppercase with colon separators (e.g., AA:BB:CC:DD). The NSX configuration explicitly requires the thumbprint to be a continuous lowercase hexadecimal string without colon separators (e.g., aabbccdd).

Resolution

To resolve this issue, capture the natively formatted thumbprint directly from the NSX Global Manager Appliance UI:

1. Log in to the UI of the Global Manager that has a status of none (the demoted site).

2. Navigate to System > Global Manager Appliances.

3. Locate the node currently holding the VIP and click View Details.

4. Click the Copy To Clipboard icon next to CERT THUMBPRINT to capture the string in the correct format (lowercase, no colons).

5. Log in to the UI of the current Active Global Manager.

6. Initiate the Make Standby operation on the location that currently has the status of "none".

7. Fill out the necessary details and paste the properly formatted thumbprint.

Additional Information

For more information on disaster recovery workflows, see the official documentation: Disaster Recovery Using Federation