vim-cmd has stopped working for some commands (getallvms works, but power.off no longer works, etc.)

[burlbn]

On ESXi 5.5, have been successfully using vim-cmd to power on/off VMs, but it has stopped working (was working last week).

Commands like 'vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms' are working - but, 'vim-cmd vmsvc/power.off foobar' do not.

If I run 'vim-cmd -d trivia vmsvc/power.off foobar', then I can see that perhaps this is a certificate problem:

2015-09-21T13:20:44.138Z [FFDC85B0 info 'Default'] Logging uses fast path: true
2015-09-21T13:20:44.138Z [FFDC85B0 info 'Default'] Handling bora/lib logs with VmaCore facilities
2015-09-21T13:20:44.138Z [FFDC85B0 info 'Default'] Initialized channel manager
2015-09-21T13:20:44.138Z [FFDC85B0 info 'Default'] Current working directory: /
2015-09-21T13:20:44.139Z [FFE2BB70 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread enlisted
2015-09-21T13:20:44.139Z [FFE6CB70 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread enlisted
2015-09-21T13:20:44.140Z [FFEADB70 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread enlisted
2015-09-21T13:20:44.140Z [FFEEEB70 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread enlisted
2015-09-21T13:20:44.140Z [FFDC85B0 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread pool on asio: Min Io, Max Io, Min Task, Max Task, Max Concurency: 2, 200, 2, 10, 2147483647
2015-09-21T13:20:44.140Z [FFDC85B0 info 'ThreadPool'] Thread enlisted
2015-09-21T13:20:44.143Z [FFDC85B0 info 'Default'] Vmacore::InitSSL: handshakeTimeoutUs = 20000000
2015-09-21T13:20:44.143Z [FFDC85B0 info 'SysCommandPosix'] ForkExec(/usr/libexec/hostd/nssquery)  75710
2015-09-21T13:20:44.147Z [FFE2BB70 error 'HttpConnectionPool-000000'] [ConnectComplete] Connect failed to <cs p:1f3004a8, TCP:localhost:443>; cnx: (null), error: N7Vmacore3Ssl18SSLVerifyExceptionE(SSL Exception: Verification parameters:
--> PeerThumbprint: XX:49:XX:84:67:XX:24:43:XX:2C:D3:XX:55:44:XX:42:70:XX:4C:XX
--> ExpectedThumbprint:
--> ExpectedPeerName: localhost
--> The remote host certificate has these problems:
-->
--> * Host name does not match the subject name(s) in certificate.
-->
--> * unable to get local issuer certificate)
2015-09-21T13:20:44.147Z [FFDC85B0 info 'vmomi.soapStub[0]'] Resetting stub adapter for server <cs p:1f3004a8, TCP:localhost:443> : Closed
(vim.fault.NotFound) {
   dynamicType = <unset>,
   faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
   msg = "Unable to find a VM corresponding to "foobar"",
}

The "ExpectedThumbprint:" being empty seems suspect...

* I see nothing in logs that is of help.. 

* The certificate in /etc/vmware/ssl seems to be valid (does not expire until 2026)

* /etc/hosts has an entry for localhost - the CN in the cert is for 'localhost.localdomain'

* the licenses are valid...

Any help on where to dig next would be appriciated...

Thanks!

[unsichtbare]

We saw this in diskless installs of ESXi that did not have the scratch redirected. See: VMware KB: Creating a persistent scratch location for ESXi 4.x/5.x/6.0

[peetz]

Hi Burl and welcome to the forums!

can you please try to generate new certificates for ESXi by following the instructions here?:

Generate New Self-Signed Certificates for ESXi

Andreas

[burlbn]

That didn't help with my issue, but I'm sure it was good to do.  Thanks!

[burlbn]

Thanks for the tip. I've tried this already and it did not seem to work.  I also set the sticky-bit on the .crt/.key files per another KB article that I saw - didn't work though.