Site Paring is Disconnected after HCX Cloud Manager is restored from backup

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

• You restored a Destination HCX Cloud Manager from a backup.
  • You have not updated the Server Certificate since the backup was taken.
• Site Paring from a Source HCX Manager to the restored Destination HCX Cloud Manager is Disconnected.
• Site Paring from the restored HCX Cloud Manager to another Destination HCX Cloud Manager remains Connected.
• In the Source HCX Manager log, certificate errors keep on being logged.
  /common/logs/admin/app.log
<Timestamp> UTC [EventingService_SvcThread-NNNNN, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: a<UUID>] ERROR c.v.v.h.s.e.c.EventingRestClient- Failure on pull events from remote, remote address: <Remote site>
com.vmware.vchs.hybridity.adapters.https.UntrustedCertificateException: PKIX path validation failed: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: signature check failed

Environment

VMware HCX 4.11

VCF Operations HCX 9.0

Cause

The SSL certificate is restored during the backup recovery process, but Apache HTTP Server (httpd) is not automatically restarted to make the restored certificate active.

Consequently, the Source HCX Manager detects a mismatched SSL certificate presented by the restored Destination HCX Cloud Manager, resulting in Disconnected Site Pairing.

Resolution

The issue is fixed in HCX 9.1.

To workaround the issue, restart Apache HTTP Server on the restored Destination HCX Cloud Manager in either way.

• CLI

1. Log in to the HCX Manager with admin.
2. Switch to root with su command.
   admin@<Hostname> [ ~ ]$ su
Password:
root@<Hostname> [ /home/admin ]#
3. Restart Apache HTTP Server.
   systemctl restart httpd

• Web Interface

1. Log in to the HCX Manager Appliance Management interface: https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:9443.
2. Navigate to Appliance Summary.
3. Stop HTTPD Service.
4. Start HTTPD Service.

Note:
Refrain from trusting the new certificate in the Source HCX Manager.
You will need to trust the original certificate again after the restored certificate is activated.

Additional Information

VMware HCX Manager Services from the CLI

Monitoring HCX Services from the Appliance Management Interface