VxRail: vSAN Health Commands Throwing Error "CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED" Due to Untrusted ESXi Certificates

Summary: vSAN health commands throwing error CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED due to untrusted ESXi certs.

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Symptoms

When running VxVerify, we may encounter critical messages as below: 
 

 VxRM | 0 Pass | Tests passed successfully DE3002xxxxxxxx|
| _cluster | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_object: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details .|
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_cluster: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| vxrail-n-01 | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_util: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_network: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_disk: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| vxrail-n-02 | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_util: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_network: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_disk: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| vxrail-n-03 | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_util: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_network: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_disk: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| vxrail-n-04 | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_util: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_network: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |
| `` | 3 Crit 000066460 | vsh_disk: Test error, see minion_hostname.log for details |



When running localcli vsan health cluster list on the hosts we see errors like this:
 

ERROR:root:Failed to test vsan vmodl version with error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:728) on localhost
WARNING:root:Retry retrieving vsan vmodl version, 0
ERROR:root:Failed to test vsan vmodl version with error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:728) on localhost
WARNING:root:Retry retrieving vsan vmodl version, 1
ERROR:root:Failed to test vsan vmodl version with error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:728) on localhost
WARNING:root:Retry retrieving vsan vmodl version, 2
ERROR:root:Failed to test vsan vmodl version with error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:728) on localhost
WARNING:root:Retry retrieving vsan vmodl version


The vCenter server appliance may also popup an alarm "vSphere vCenter Certificate Management Mode"

Cause

The vSAN health commands fail as the certificates on the ESXi hosts in the cluster are not trusted.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

  1. Export the intermediate and root certificates to disk and copy them to each ESXi host in the cluster.
  2. Add them to the ESXi trust store using the commands detailed in Adding Custom Certificate on ESXi hosts through CLI.This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies.
  3. Once this is done, please restart the services on each host to make sure that the changes have not caused any problems for any of the other services.
  4. Once this is complete, you should successfully run the localcli command that had been failing (localcli vsan health cluster list) and you should also be able to verify that the precheck from VxRail VxVerify which had been failing is now completing without errors.

Affected Products

VxRail, VMWare Cloud on Dell EMC VxRail E560F, VMWare Cloud on Dell EMC VxRail E560N, VxRail Appliance Family, VxRail Appliance Series, VxRail G Series Nodes, VxRail D Series Nodes, VxRail D560, VxRail D560F, VxRail E Series Nodes, VxRail E460 , VxRail E560, VxRail E560F, VxRail E560N, VxRail E660, VxRail E660F, VxRail E660N, VxRail E665, VxRail E665F, VxRail E665N, VxRail G560, VxRail G560F, VxRail P Series Nodes, VxRail P470, VxRail P570, VxRail P570 VCF, VxRail P570F, VxRail P570F VCF, VxRail P580N, VxRail P580N VCF, VxRail P670F, VxRail P670N, VxRail P675F, VxRail P675N, VxRail S Series Nodes, VxRail S470, VxRail S570, VxRail S670, VxRail Software, VxRail V470, VxRail V570, VxRail V570 VCF, VxRail V570F, VXRAIL V670F, VxRail VD-4510C, VxRail VD-4520C, VxRail VD Series Nodes, VxRail VE-660, VxRail VE-6615, VxRail VP-760, VxRail VP-7625, VxRail VS-760 ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000185050
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 25 Sept 2025
Version:  4
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