VMware Horizon View Composer: There was an error identifying the validity of the server

I  had an issue where vCenter Server service suddenly stopped and wouldn’t start and after a lot of log reading I came to a decision to create a new one as the issue didn’t bare even the time to open a case with support to tackle it.

So I created a new vCenter Server (same IP address just a different name), and did the rest of the configuration accordingly.

The environment was configured for VMware Horizon View as well, so I went back to the View administration console and re-validated the vCenter Server certificate and well went well (luckily).

Now that the connection server is okay with the new vCenter, I installed Composer on the vCenter Server and created an ODBC to point to the old Composer database, all went well from here.

When I went back to the View administration dashboard to re-validate the Composer certificate, the error “There was an error identifying the validity of the server” pops and in the event viewer you can see a BROKER_SVI_CERT_INVALID event.

I went to the VDM logs and got some output regarding the certificate as well but couldn’t find anything helpful when I Googled for those entries, after brain storming a bit I went to the Composer’s SVI command line utility to check the certificate:

• Stop the Composer service.
• Open CMD and change directory to the Composer installation directory.
• sviconfig -operation=ReplaceCertificate -delete=false
• Press 0 to abort.

After checking this, I noticed that the Composer certificate was issued using the NETBIOS name of the vCenter Server, where on the View Connection Server the the Composer was pointing to the IP address of the vCenter Server and this seemed to be the issue.

So the only way to do it is to open the ADAM database of the connection server and look for that property:

• On the View Connection Server, Start -> run -> adsiedit.msc
• In the connection settings:
  • Name: anything you want.
  • Connection Point: dc=vdi,dc=vmware,dc=int
  • Computer: localhost:389
  • Press Ok.
• Expand the Name which you put.
• Expand OU=Properties then the OU=VirtualCenter
• Right-click on chose properties on the object within VirtualCenter
• Locate an attribute pae-SVIURL edit this attribute and put the name found when viewing the Composer certificate.
• Click ok and exit ADSIEdit.
• Co to the Connection Server and refresh, you’ll notice the Composer value has changed to that which we have modified and you’ll be able to validate the certificate normally.

I hope this helps.

(Abdullah)^2