“Unable to retrieve health data from https” alert displayed in the vCenter Service Status.

7 December, 2010 How To, VMware 2

I recently saw this error occur on a Windows Server 2008 R2 running VMware vCenter Server 4.1.0 (Build 258902) after changing the name of the server. Apparently, changes made to the machine name are not reflected to the installation of the VMware vCenter Converter. According to VMware KB 1025010, this alert could be triggered due to an SSL certificate issue, which would make sense since the name of the vCenter Server had been changed. Here is a quickstep guide on how to correct this issue.

  1. First, make sure that you have LDP.exe installed in the vCenter Server machine.
  2. Start LPD.exe and connect to the LDAP server on the vCenter Server:
  3. Navigate to the Connection menu and click on Connect. In the Connect window fill in the FQDN of your vCenter Server and click on the OK button.
  4. Next, navigate to Connection and click on Bind. Provide the username, password and domain name. Use an account with administrative privileges. Click OK to bind. As response the bind command you should get the following message in the right pane of the LDAP window: Authenticated as: “<domain><user_name>”
  5. Press CTRL + T and click OK to see the tree view in the right pane of the LDAP window.
  6. Next, find the value of the vmw-vc-SSLThumbprint attribute of the vCenter Server’s SSL certificate. Double click the following keys:
  7. DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  8. OU=Health,DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  9. OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  10. CN=<GUID>, OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  11. CN=<GUID>.vpxd,CN=<GUID>, OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  12. Highlight the last key and make a note of the vmw-vc-SSLThumbprint value displayed in the right pane of the window (click on the screenshot below for an example).
  13. Find and replace the vmw-vc-SSLThumbprint value of the vCenter Converter with the value of the vCenter Server:
  14. Navigate to DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  15. OU=Health,DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  16. OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  17. CN=<GUID>, OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  18. CN=com.vmware.converter, CN=<GUID>, OU=ComponentSpecs,OU=Health, DC=virtualcenter,DC=vmware,DC=int
  19. Highlight and right-click the last key. Select Modify and fill in the values as follow:
  20. Attribute: vmw-vc-SSLThumbprint
  21. Values: value from step 3f
  22. Operation: Replace
  23. Click the Enter button and you should now see the entry list filled in.
  24. Click the Run button to change the value.
  25. Disconnect from the LDAP by clicking Disconnect from the Connect menu. Close LDP.exe.
  26. Restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server and the VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices services.

When the services are successfully restarted, login to the vCenter Server with the vCenter client and verify that the VMware vCenter Converter service is now green in the vCenter Service Status window.

Cheers!

– Marek.Z

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