It has come to my attention that many people are having the problem of being unable to connect to the VMware lookup service. This is a problem that can be brought about by a number of reasons, I have come up with a list of some of these causes:
1. Recently upgraded vCenter 5.5.0 Server appliance to Update 1.
2. This particular vCenter appliance was deployed as a vApp from a vCloud Director catalog .
3. The hostname of the appliance may have been changed recently
There is a straight forward solution to the problem:
1. Log into the vCenter Server appliance management interface (https://fqdn:5480/)
2. Navigate to the Admin tab
3. Certificate regeneration enabled: choose Yes
4. Click the Submit button
5. Navigate to the System tab
6. Reboot the appliance
After this step then is complete:
1. Log into the vCenter Server appliance management interface (https://fqdn:5480/)
2. Navigate to the Admin tab
3. Certificate regeneration enabled: choose No
4. Click the Submit button
5. Log out of the vCenter Server appliance management interface
6. Log into the VMware vSphere Web Client normally
This process looks long but in the long run it helps with the problem, the certificate regeneration is encountered by logging into the vCenter Server appliance management interface, but then verified with a search to ensure the purpose of the Certificate regeneration feature. They both highlight a discrepancy between the appliance hostname and the SSL certificate resulting in the need to regenerate the certificate to match the currently assigned hostname.
