Expired Certificate Alert Displayed in VMware Aria Operations for vCenter Adapter Instance

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• In VMware Aria Operations 8.18.x, a certificate expiration alert is displayed for a vCenter Server adapter instance in the administration interface:

Alert: Expired Certificate Detected
Target: vCenter Adapter Instance (<vCenter FQDN>)
Status: Critical / Expired

• Orphaned certificate" and "upgrade stale instance" can also be the cause for this alert.
  • Validate Adapter Instance warning message.

Environment

VMware Aria Operations 8.18.x

Cause

The expired certificate alert occurs when an orphaned, stale vCenter adapter instance registration remains in VMware Aria Operations following a vCenter Server upgrade from 7.x to 8.x where the DNS hostname of the appliance was modified.

The certificate associated with the legacy 7.x registration eventually expires, triggering persistent alerts in VMware Aria Operations.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, remove the stale vCenter adapter instance from VMware Aria Operations:

1. Take Snapshot: Take a full virtual machine snapshot of the VMware Aria Operations cluster nodes prior to making configuration changes.

2.  Log into the VMware Aria Operations Administration UI.

3.  Go to Data Sources > Integrations > Accounts.

4. Locate the unused/legacy vCenter adapter instance associated with the pre-upgrade 7.x DNS hostname (<vCenter FQDN>).

5. Select the vertical ellipsis next to the stale vCenter adapter instance and select Delete. Confirm the deletion of the adapter instance and its associated certificate.

6. Navigate to Administration > Management > Certificates and confirm that the expired certificate alert is cleared and all active integration statuses display as Green.

7. Once data collection and system health are confirmed stable, delete the VM snapshot created in Step 1.

Additional Information

For detailed instructions on managing adapter certificates and integration accounts, refer to the Broadcom TechDocs VMware Aria Operations Documentation.