Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service, SSL certificate verification failed

I ran in to this error today that the ssl certificate verification failed. Or to be more precise:

Failed to connect to VMware Lookup Service.
SSL certificate verification failed.

I had been playing around in my lab and I am guessing this error was caused by the fact that I changed the hostname of my vCenter Server Appliance after configuring it. When I rebooted the VCVA I bumped in to this issue. Luckily it is very easy to solve:

  1. Go to http://<vcenter ip address or fqdn>:5480
  2. Click “Admin” Tab
  3. Click “Toggle certificate setting” under “Actions”
  4. Restart the vCenter Server Appliance
  5. During the restart the certificates will be regenerated
  6. Click “Admin” Tab and disable the “Toggle certificate setting”

ssl certificate verification failed

Working with CA signed certificates in your vSphere environment?

Are you working with CA signed certificates in your vSphere environment? You might want to check out these recently published KB articles. They will definitely help understanding the whole process around installing and configuring them. (Thanks Simon for pointing these out!)