pcns VM can not be deployed on a single VMware ESXi 6.7 / /.0 U3 Host "Could not connect to Host over the network."

[Naiden]

I have a strange problem here and hope that I can get help.

We have several VMware ESXi 6.7 and 7. U3 hosts.

Three of the hosts are connected to a APC UPS in location A and the other three are connected to another APC UPS in location B.

The first 3 active hosts in location A are managed by a VCenter.

I imported a PowerChute Business Edition VM Version 5 on each of the hosts and want to configure the PowerChutses VMs on each host and UPS.

The problem: The three hosts that are managed by Vcenter are configured cleanly in the steps of the configuration wizard of the PowerChuite.

The three hosts that are standalone and not connected to the VCenter are not found in the configuration wizard of the PowerChute ‘Could not connect to Host over the network.’ Of course I enter in the individual steps as type standalone server.

It doesn’t matter if the PowerChute VMs are deployed via the VCenter or via the ESXi host and on with of the hosts.

What is the reason for this?

Thanks for your help

[malinoskikev]

I am running into the same issue. To add more to this, I am prompted to accept a certificate warning from the ESXi host I am trying to connect to. When I accept the SSL error I get "Could not connect to Host over network."

[BillP]

@Naiden 

Please send a screenshot of the error that is displayed. And note that when installing PCNS 5 on a standalone ESXi host, you must start the PowerChute service before the PNCS web interface becomes available. 

To start the PowerChute service, log into the PowerChute VM as root. Enter the commands systemctl enable PowerChute. Then enter systemctl start PowerChute.

As for the ESXi host not discovered with configuring with vCenter, only hosts managed by vCenter will be found when configuring PowerChute with vCenter Server. 

[Naiden]

ESXi 7.0 U3 stand alone Server

Deployment PCNS_en_5.0.0.ova in the ESXi Web GUI

Go through the Configuration wizard in the console

After deployment login as root in the console

cd /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1

vi pcnsconfig.ini

username= new user name

password= new password

systemctl enable PowerChute

systemctl start PowerChute

systemctl status PowerChute

 configuration wizard  https://IP:6547

On Picture 3 I click for accept certifcate

In Step 4 no connection to host possible

[BillP]

@malinoskikev 

Do you have a domain name server and if so can you ping the ESXi using the domain name from the PCNS VM?

If you can ping the ESXi host using the domain name stop the PowerChute service (asystemctl stop PowerChute) edit /etc/hosts and add the ESXi host domain name and IP address.

Example of the hosts file:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
192.168.0.141 ESXiHost141.TestLab.local 

[Naiden]

Hello and thank you for your support.

We assumed that the problem would be properly investigated :-(.

This is not a DNS problem. As I already described in the initial post, we have three other ESXi hosts that are configured exactly the same way, but are managed by one VCenter and there the configuration of the PowerChute as a single host works without any problems!

 We still edited the host file on one of the PowerChute VMs according to your instructions (yes, we have our own DNS servers and they are also configured in the network settings of the PowerChute) and unfortunately the error did not change, no matter if we enter the IP address of the ESXi host or the DNS name in the setup in the web GUI.

Please investigate the problem. It must be a bug in the software.

Thank you

[BillP]

@Naiden 

Would you send a copy of the error log and debug log that will be found in /opt/APC/PowerChute/group1? And, where is the system located? Country is fine. We do not need the specific location. 

[Naiden]

we had to start the ssh deamon first

systemctl start sshd

Location is Germany

[BillP]

@Naiden 

The issue is due to CN value in the SSL cert the ESXi host is providing. The CN value is being set to localhost.localdomain. To avoid this we added the following entry to the /etc/hosts file;

< ESXi host IP >     localhost          localhost.localdomain

Example: 

192.168.0.141 localhost       localhost.localdomain

That will allow the connection to proceed.

A long-term solution would be to add the host to vCenter to generate a cert signed by vCenter CA or replace the default ESXi host cert with a signed cert and then add the signed cert to the PowerChute keystore.

[dg25]

@Naiden @BillP 

During the installation of ESXi, the installer generates a self-signed certificate for each ESXi host, but the process is performed before the ESXi identity is configured. This means the ESXi host has a common name in the self-signed certificate of localhost.localdomain.

Instead of adding < ESXi host IP > localhost localhost.localdomain to the PowerChute VM's hosts file, after assigning a domain name to the ESXi host, regenerate the hosts' self-signed certificate.

To re-generate the self-signed certificate:

Login to the ESXi host over SSH (Requires ESXi shell and ssh access to be enabled on the host)

Back up the existing cert files:

        mv /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt.old

        mv /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.key /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.key.old

Generate a new cert that contains the FQDN for the CN value. - /sbin/generate-certificates

Restart the hostd service on the host - /etc/init.d/hostd restart

[dg25]

Adding the Hosts to vCenter would also generate a new cert signed by VMware Root CA with IP address or FQDN set as the CN value.

[Naiden]

Thank you. Problem is solved