VM Power-On or Creation Fails in VMware Cloud Director Following vCenter Certificate Replacement

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

This article addresses issues where virtual machines (VMs) fail to power on or cannot be created in VMware Cloud Director (VCD) following a vCenter Server SSL certificate update. The issue often manifests with the error: 

[ 64f12df7-5db7-499e-9ddc-230066cfca9b ] Task failed ... error={There are no active hosts in the cluster.} - The operation could not be performed because the object is in an invalid state.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Director (VCD) 10.x
• VMware vCenter Server

Cause

The issue occurs when the old vCenter certificate remains in the trust store alongside the successfully imported new vCenter certificate. This duplication causes an invalid object state, preventing the cluster from recognizing active hosts.

Resolution

1. Verify New Certificates: Ensure that the new vCenter Certificate is successfully imported into the trust store.
2. Remove Stale Certificates: Access the trust store and identify the old, stale vCenter certificate. Remove this entry to prevent conflicts.
3. Refresh Connection:
   1. Log in to the VMware Cloud Director Provider Portal.
   2. Navigate to the vCenter Server configuration.
   3. Select the vCenter instance and perform a Reconnect operation.
   4. Perform a Refresh of the connection to update the status.
4. Validate: Attempt to power on or create a VM to verify that the operation succeeds.

Additional Information

Removing the old certificate and refreshing the connection clears the invalid object state, allowing vCenter to establish trust properly and enabling active hosts to be recognized by the cluster for VM provisioning and power operations.