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JohnMcClenahan
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-06-2019 03:30 PM

Can't now login to ESXi 6.5 -This site can’t provide a secure connection. 192.168.0.100 sent an invalid response. ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

I've been running ESXi 6.5 on an old Dell T110 server for several years, and installed one Centos 7 VM.

After a recent power cut, the VM didn't restart, and I couldn't log in remotely to the host to restart it. I rebooted the host machine by switching if off and on again.

I then tried to log in to the Management Console using a browser, and succeeded just once, from my phone, giving me the opportunity to restart the Centos virtual machine. So it's working, as designed, as a Plex Media Server.

But before and since the one connection from my phone, I can't login from any browser, or indeed from my phone again, to the management console of the host.

I just get the error message in the title.

I've tried both Chrome Version 78.0.3904.87 (Official Build) (64-bit) (but it is updating as I write this) and Safari 13.0.3 (14608.3.10.10.1), both running on Mac Mojave.

And now when I try again in Safari, using the same credentials that worked on the phone, it just won't connect, saying I have the wrong password.

Do I have to connect a keyboard and screen to the ESXi host to re-establish a connection and/or update ESXi? The Dell is old enough that it won't work on ESXi 6 or later. AFAIK. 

If/when I do get a connection, I would like to set the VM also to restart in the face of a power failure, but a) I can't access it, and b) the instructions I found to set the properties of the VM to auto-restart don't match what I saw on the screen the one time I did have the connection to it

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4 Replies
JohnMcClenahan
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-06-2019 03:35 PM

Correction.

I have succeeded again in logging in via my phone Chrome browser, and find that I am running ESXi v6.5 build 2, not v5 as I thought earlier.

But I still can't log in from my computer. Why not?

And is there a way to edit my original post? I can't see it, if so.

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timweaver23
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎11-06-2019 05:24 PM

You could try using powercli to log into the host .....

# Settings

# vCenter Connection details

$vCenterFQDN=”hostname or IP address”

$vCenterUser=”root”

Write-Host “Connecting to vCenter” -foregroundcolor “red”

Connect-VIServer -Server $vCenterFQDN -User $vCenterUser

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JohnMcClenahan
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-08-2019 01:27 PM

Thank you. Unfortunately, I don't fully understand your answer.

What is 'powercli'? I guess that the cli refers to 'the command line', but don't understand the rest. Is it something I should be able to access from my computer, even though the browser access doesn't work any more?

Do I use an SSH connection and terminal to access the host manager of ESXi and type in the commands in the last two lines?

I've tried doing that from my iMac, using vSSH Lite, and the username root, with the password that works from my phone.

It won't connect by SSH,  just hanging with a black screen, eventually saying 'operation timed out', followed by disconnection.

I still don't understand:

a. Why browser access has suddenly stopped working - on Chrome, the connection is just refused. Using Safari, I can get as far a login screen, but the password isn't accepted.

b. Given that, why I CAN still connect using a browser on my phone.

At least when I use Safari now on the iMac, connecting to the host IP address, it gives me a login screen, not just an error message. But it then rejects the username/password combination I used successfully on my phone (root user, previously working pw), by blanking out the password field and re-displaying the login screen.

And before this distraction, I'd actually like to start replacing the single existing 1GB hard drive, which is getting full, with a bigger 4GB one, and an SSD 120GB system disk.

Should I just start over with the new hardware, and rebuild the system from scratch?

i've also posted on the CentOS 7 forum about the second issue - how to replace the disks.

But if I can't properly manage the host, that seems a risky thing to try, short of starting again. 

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ronaldgevern
Contributor
Contributor
‎06-28-2022 11:36 PM

This issue usually involves a problem with your web browser or your site’s SSL certificate. The browser’s telling you that because it’s trying to tell you there’s a problem with the certificate the website is using for HTTPS, so “this site can't provide a secure connection”. In all cases the end-to-end encryption is still going to work just because HTTPS can’t function without it. There is no definite guide for managing this error.

Two possible options to get rid of this issue

  1. Use Self Sign certificate
  2. Remove domain security policy:

Steps for Chrome :

  • Go to : chrome://net-internals/#hsts
  • Query HSTS/PKP domain for localhost
  • Use Delete domain security policies option to delete configuration for localhost

This error is because of the following problems:

  • Invalid SSL or SSL is untrusted (self-signed)
  • SSL Not installed properly
  • Old Technology or SSL/TLS version for encryption

 

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