Failed to Initialize SSL Session to Remote Host 

I had a miniature test lab consisting of 1 host and 1 vCenter 6.0 appliance. When I installed the VCSA on the host I was suddenly unable to connect to the console of the VMs I had previously created.

 

When I connected via the ESXi host I was presented with the following message:

Unable to connect to the MKS: Internal Error

mks1
 

 

When I tried via the console in vCenter I was shown this message:

Failed to initialize SSL session to remote host 

mks2

 

Looking at the logs of the VM I could see the following output:

# less /vmfs/volumes/56b1beee-dc96c552-bd58-002590e909a0/MJ-VM1-2012R2/vmware.log

 

<snip>
2016-07-22T11:04:51.620Z| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 1409:Remote connection failure
2016-07-22T11:06:32.471Z| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 1509:Remote connection failure
2016-07-22T11:08:13.333Z| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 1609:Remote connection failure
2016-07-22T11:09:54.165Z| vmx| I120: GuestRpc: Got error for connection 1709:Remote connection failure
2016-07-22T12:29:09.699Z| mks| W110: SSL: Unknown SSL Error
2016-07-22T12:29:09.699Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca
2016-07-22T12:29:09.699Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:140940E5:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:ssl handshake failure
2016-07-22T12:29:09.699Z| mks| I120: SOCKET 1734 (123) recv error 0: Success
2016-07-22T12:29:09.699Z| mks| W110: SOCKET 1734 (123) Error during authd-VNC negotiation: (1) Asyncsocket error.
2016-07-22T12:37:13.369Z| mks| W110: SSL: Unknown SSL Error
2016-07-22T12:37:13.369Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca
2016-07-22T12:37:13.369Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:140940E5:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:ssl handshake failure
2016-07-22T12:37:13.369Z| mks| I120: SOCKET 1735 (123) recv error 0: Success
2016-07-22T12:37:13.369Z| mks| W110: SOCKET 1735 (123) Error during authd-VNC negotiation: (1) Asyncsocket error.
2016-07-22T12:38:47.550Z| mks| W110: Error opening DH parameter file "/etc/vmware/ssl/dh1024.pem".
2016-07-22T12:38:47.556Z| mks| W110: SSL: Unknown SSL Error
2016-07-22T12:38:47.556Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:14094438:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert internal error
2016-07-22T12:38:47.556Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:140940E5:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:ssl handshake failure
2016-07-22T12:38:47.556Z| mks| I120: SOCKET 1736 (123) recv error 0: Success
2016-07-22T12:38:47.556Z| mks| W110: SOCKET 1736 (123) Error during authd-VNC negotiation: (1) Asyncsocket error.
2016-07-22T12:39:02.306Z| mks| W110: SSL: Unknown SSL Error
2016-07-22T12:39:02.306Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:14094418:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert unknown ca
2016-07-22T12:39:02.306Z| mks| I120: SSL Error: error:140940E5:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:ssl handshake failure
2016-07-22T12:39:02.306Z| mks| I120: SOCKET 1737 (123) recv error 0: Success
2016-07-22T12:39:02.306Z| mks| W110: SOCKET 1737 (123) Error during authd-VNC negotiation: (1) Asyncsocket error.

This seemed to be an SSL error.

To fix the issue I simply suspended then powered on the VM