"Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate file" error when deploying OVA from URL

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When deploying an OVA from a URL in the vCenter Server, you experience these symptoms:

• The deployment may fail.
• You see the error similar to:
  
  Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate file
   
• In the /var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.114Z | ERROR | vapi-79:kalw3wiz-445-auto-ce-h5:70000211-9d-bc | cls-simple-activity-12 | ImportSessionActivity | Maximum manifest & certificate retrieval count reached.!

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x

Cause

This issue occurs when the OVA does not contain a manifest or certificate file displaying the Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate file error.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server version 8.0 U1. VMware vCenter Server 8.0 Update 1 Release Notes

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3q. VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3q Release Notes

For download information, see VMware vSphere downloads, VMware Converter, OEM custom images, patches and addons in the Broadcom Support Portal

Workaround:

To work around Unable to retrieve manifest or certificate try one of the following:

1. Deploy the OVA from a local file.
2. Run the tar command to extract the OVF file from the OVA

tar -xvf Filename.ova

3. Deploy the OVF file from the URL. 
4. Import the OVA into a content library and deploy the content library item. For more information, see Import Items to a Content Library and Create a Library