Error: "An error occurred while starting service 'sps'"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware Telco Cloud Platform

Issue/Introduction

• The vmware-sps service is failing to start
• /var/log/vmware/vmware-sps/sps.log displays errors:
  • Caught exception while logging by SamlToken - Unexpected status code: 503
  • Caught exception - com.vmware.vim.storage.common.serviceclient.kv.KvException: KV client login failed
  • Caught exception - com.vmware.vim.storage.common.serviceclient.qs.QsException: Query service login failed
• The vmware-sps service is unable to communicate with the vmware-vpxd-svcs service
• The vmware-vpxd-svcs service is running

Environment

• vCenter: 8.0.0a
• VCF: 8.0
• TCP: 3.0

Cause

A portion of the machine_ssl_cert has expired or was signed by a Certificate Authority that has expired (e.g. intermediate)

Resolution

Replace the machine_ssl_certificate

Option 1:

• Replace the machine certificate using the certificate-manager or vCert script.

Option 2: 

1. Export the current intermediate certificate from the Windows workstation store.
2. Unpublish the old certificate from vCenter.
3. Publish the new certificate to vCenter.
4. Export the current machine_ssl_cert certificate and key.
5. Replace the current intermediate certificate in the machine_ssl_cert certificate with the new one.
6. Delete the current machine_ssl_cert certificate and key.
7. Create a new machine_ssl_cert entry with the updated certificate and current key.

Additional Information

Related KBs:

• Sps and vpxd-svcs service fails to start due to expired Machine SSL Certificate on vCenter Server
• Replace vCenter Machine SSL certificate Custom Certificate Authority Signed Certificate