Cannot login to Vcenter all of the sudden. Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service error ??

[frankcooz]

Could anyone help me with this error?

I've been having issues with my Vcenter server ever since we've upgraded to 5.5 I cannot use windows authentication to access the server but recently, when logging into the server, I've been receiving an error stating "Inventory Services could not be loaded" and I show no inventory within Vcenter. After a few reboots it usually came back up. (I've needed to login as local admin to see anything, domain admin would not show inventory)

Now, however, a critical error is happening, and I can not login to Vcenter at all anymore. When attempting to login I get the following error...

Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service - https://vCenter:7444/lookupservice/sdk

I believe this related to some type of SSL Certificate error, but I can not find any workaround to fix it. The computer name and IP address of the server has not changed and the time is accurate. I also cannot log into https://vcenter:5480 to access the admin page to reset the security certificate. (it just redirects me to the vsphere web login again)

[msripada]

Can you ssh or have shell access to the VCSA 5.5?

Can you open the vcenter https://vcenterdfqdn and check if the certificate is not expired or expired?

Thanks,

MS

[mprazeres183]

Hi @frankcooz

Please follow one of this instructions:

1:

Set  "Toggle certificate setting" to ON from web UI or by creating file:

vcenter:~ # touch /etc/vmware-vpx/ssl/allow_regeneration

Stop all vmware-* services except vmware tools or switch to runlevel 2:

vcenter:~ # init 2

This will trigger same bash function that creates certificates on reboot with "Toggle certificate setting" ON:

vcenter:~ # source vpxd_commonutils; regenerate_certificates

script checks if existing certificate is self signed and if you have different hostname than specified in cert.

If you want to regenerate certificates without checking:

vcenter:~ # source vpxd_commonutils; generate_all_certificates replace

scripts MUST end with VC_CFG_RESULT=0, if not, check if vmware services are stopped

Set  "Toggle certificate setting" to OFF or:

vcenter:~ # rm /etc/vmware-vpx/ssl/allow_regeneration

vcenter:~ # reboot

2:

Reboot VCSA

When the appliance starts, the GRUB boot loader shows briefly.

• When it appears, hit the up or down arrow to stop the boot countdown clock (which is only like 2 seconds).
• Following the instructions at the bottom of the screen, hit "p" to enter the unlock password (which is the root password).  This will allow you to change the boot-time string.
• Highlight "VMWare vCenter Server Appliance" and press "e" to edit the boot settings.
• Highlight the "Kernel..." line and press "e" to edit the boot string.
• Append a "1" to the end so that it looks like this: "...showopts 1" (minus the quotation marks)
• Press enter, and then "b" to boot.

This will cause the appliance to boot in init level 1 (or single-user maintenance mode).  From here, the root password will get you into the console where you can delete /etc/vmware-vpx/ssl/allow_regeneration.  Reboot the server when you're done with "shutdown -r now".  It shouldn't be necessary to go back into GRUB to remove the "1" you added earlier.