VCF Operations for Networks Deletion Fails with LCMCOMMON80001 CertificateValidationException

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• Attempts to delete VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRNI) within VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) fail. The SDDC Manager UI triggers a certificate error during the deletion task.
  
  The task fails with the following error:
  Error Code: LCMCOMMON80001 Generic system error com.vmware.vim.vmomi.core.exception.CertificateValidationException: Server certificate chain is not trusted and thumbprint doesn't match ... SSL handshake from <REDACTED_IP>/<REDACTED_IP>:39452 to <REDACTED_HOSTNAME>/<REDACTED_IP>:443 failed in 20137 ms Caused by: org.bouncycastle.tls.TlsFatalAlert: certificate_unknown(46) Caused by: java.security.cert.CertificateException: Unable to construct a valid chain

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1

Cause

The deletion task fails because the SDDC Manager (LCM service) does not trust the vCenter Server certificate chain. A CertificateValidationException is thrown during the SSL handshake to <REDACTED_HOSTNAME> because the certificate is unknown and a valid chain cannot be constructed. This mismatch prevents SDDC Manager from securely executing API calls to vCenter to remove the virtual machines.

Resolution

To bypass the vCenter API certificate validation failure and remove the component, perform a manual deletion from the vCenter inventory during the automated task:

1. Log in to the SDDC Manager UI.

2. Navigate to Lifecycle > VCF Management > Components > Integrated Components.

3. Click on the three vertical dots next to the operations-networks component and select Delete.

4. Leave the Delete VM from vCenter Inventory checkbox unchecked.

5. Proceed with the deletion and wait for the SDDC Manager task to complete successfully.

6. Log in to the vSphere Client.

7. Locate the Operations for Networks VMs in the vCenter Server inventory, right-click, and select Delete from Disk to manually remove them.