Unable to access or view the web console for any Virtual Machines through the vSphere Client UI.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to access or view the web console for any Virtual Machines through the vSphere Client UI.
  
  
• The vpxd-svcs service is found in a stopped state and fails to start, including when attempting a manual restart.
  
  
• From /var/log/vmware/vpxd-svcs/pre-start-vpxd-svcs.log, we see entries related to "Invalid certificate"
  
  

  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ ERROR:tagging_grpc_registration:Failed to reregister Tagging service grpc endpoints with Lookup Service
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ ERROR:tagging_grpc_registration:(vmodl.fault.InvalidArgument) {
     dynamicType = <unset>,
     dynamicProperty = (vmodl.DynamicProperty) [],
     msg = '',
     faultCause = <unset>,
     faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [],
     invalidProperty = 'Invalid certificate'
  }

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

The issue occurs because one or more certificates in vCenter are expired, invalid, or missing CA.

 

Resolution

NOTE:- Ensure backups or offline snapshots exist before making certificate changes. See: VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode – backup considerations


Steps to follow: 

   1) Renew the vCenter certificates using the VMware Certificate Management Tool .

   2) Then restart all the services to bring up the services.