Web client Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service error with old DNS name of the server

[Fcolau]

HI,

I had a Vcenter server named virtualcenter.domain.com (192.168.1.10) with Vcenter 5.1 (With SSO, Inventory, Webclient) on a windows 2008 R2 with a MSSQL2012 db.

I tried to update from 5.1 to 5.5u1 and it failed, Vcenter & Webclient installers were crashing before finishing update

So I decided to make a clone of my Vcenter  and have my production still working while I was trying to update.

my clone was virtualcenter2.domain.com with a new IP 192.168.1.12

I uninstalled everything, for the webclient I had to cleanup files and registery entries manually since it didn't want to find the uninstall program when I was clicking uninstall.

Then the installation went well, everything except the webclient is working fine

When trying to log in on the new vcenter : https://virtualcenter2.domain.com:9443/vsphere-client/ I got :

Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service https://virtualcenter.domain.com:7444/lookupservice/sdk - SSL certificate verification failed.

Why the error message is with the old DNS name ?

And why during install the webclient is connecting to the lookup service perfectly and then it's not working ?

[Fcolau · Accepted solution]

After 1 day, of uninstall/reinstall/install, trying SSL things and lots of things I found online, the solution is the DUMBEST thing ever.
WHY DO VMWARE USE C:\ProgramData\VMware\ls_url.txt to provide the URL of the LookupService to the Webclient ??? During install you provide the URL for registering with SSO, why the hell isn't it writing that URL somewhere and using it after ?!

And why the hell with all the unstalling/reinstalling of ALL THE COMPONTENT of the Vcenter I made, that DUMB txt file wasn't updated with the new DNS name of my server ??

Anyway, my webclient is now working, but 1 day of work and mental torture not understanding why the hell my client wasn't working because of a fucking text file, it's depressing.

[Alon_Almog]

Thanks you, It was very helpful sharing post

[lebron]

Thank you:)

[GlowingMoose]

For those of you looking for the text file referenced by the original user it's here https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2058430http:// I, who was equally frustrated by the idiocy of the file not being updated, still had to hunt for the said file. #thanksbutnothanks!

Hope this helps!