Configuring “Change Host Details” in Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 Desktop Studio to use a new vCenter server throws the error: “The hypervisor could not be contacted.”

Problem

You’re attempting to change the vCenter server instance that your XenDesktop 5.5’s DDC uses via “Change Host Details” in Desktop studio but after entering the new Address for vCenter:

… you receive the error:

The hypervisor could not be contacted.

Solution

There can be many reasons that may cause this and one of them is the network connectivity between your XenDesktop’s DDC over to your vCenter but if you’ve confirmed that it is not a network issue, one of the items you should check is whether you have the vCenter’s certificate installed onto your DDC’s local computer store’s Trusted People –> Certificates.

The situation I was in was that I had temporarily connected my DDC over to a temporary vCenter and when we finally got new blades provisioned, I had to move it over to the production environment’s vCenter.  What I initially forgot to do was to download and install the production vCenter’s self signed certificate that it uses to present to clients connecting to it which was what caused the error thrown by the DDC.  So if you have missed this step, proceed with downloading the vCenter’s certificate and import it into the DDC’s local computer store as shown here:

**Note that you see 2 VMware default certificates listed because one was from the old temporary vCenter

Make sure you don’t forget to import this certificate to any secondary DDCs that you may have or you will encounter erratic behavior when provisioning new desktop catalog pools.