Deleting or Reconfiguring LDAPS Identity Source Fails with "Unexpected error encountered while removing selected identity source"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to delete, reconfigure, or add an LDAPS identity source in vCenter Server using the [email protected] account, the task fails with the following user interface error: "Unexpected error encountered while removing selected identity source."
•  In less /var/log/vmware/vmdird/vmdird.log shows LDAP operations failing with following error: 
  • YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ:t@1399XXXX:ERROR: VmDirSendLdapResult: Request (Modify), Error (LDAP_UNWILLING_TO_PERFORM(53)), Message (Server in read-only mode), (0) socket (127.0.0.1)
• vmdir state is Read only, when running the below command: /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/dir-cli state get

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the VMware Directory Service operating state has been set to READ_ONLY (State 2).

By design, when vmdir is in a read-only state, any modification operations is rejected.

Resolution

To restore full write permission to vmdir, set the state to "Normal" using vdcadmintool:

• Login to VCSA via SSH using root credentials.
• Run the vdcadmintool:
  • /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/vdcadmintool
• Change vmdir state to Normal:
  • Select Option 5 and select Normal
• Verify if the state has been updated to Normal using command: /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/dir-cli state get