Symptoms
Connection Servers were recently upgraded from an older version to 2212 or laterUnable to login to Horizon Admin Console. Error: "Page failed to load. Please refresh the browser to reload again"The Domain list dropdown in Admin Console is empty. Thus correct domain cannot be selected.Fail to negotiate XML-API data protection key with Horizon HTML Access Correct entries for balancedHost and portalHost entries are already set (85801)
On enabling advanced debug logging (not intended to be run for an extended period of time):
Navigate to Start > Programs > VMware.Click Set Horizon Connection Server Log Levels.When prompted, press 3 to enable advanced logging.
CS TRACE logs (DriveLetter:ProgramData\VMware\VDM\logs) contain entries like-
2023-08-10T11:26:21.371-04:00 DEBUG (19E8-22F4) <ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8009-exec-7> [VlsiInvocation] Call view API for /view-vlsi/rest/v1/authenticationmanager/generatekeymaterial
2023-08-10T11:26:21.371-04:00 DEBUG (19E8-22F4) <ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8009-exec-7> [VlsiInvocation] Finish to call view API for /view-vlsi/rest/v1/authenticationmanager/generatekeymaterial elapsed time:0 msecs
2023-08-10T11:26:21.372-04:00 TRACE (19E8-22F4) <ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8009-exec-7> [RestApiServlet] Response for url https://<CS-FQDN>/view-vlsi/rest/v1/AuthenticationManager/generateKeyMaterial:{} - < EMPTY String
Purpose
This KB is intended to help resolve an issue presented while trying to login to Horizon Admin Console. We observe the error message "Page failed to load. Please refresh the browser to reload again"
Cause
A pae-NameValuePair = "cs-disableKeyDerivation=1" is set in the ADAM db.
Because of this setting, Key Generation API call returns a NULL (empty) value. This Key is used to achieve encryption key agreement between client (web browser) and server, which is used to encrypt/decrypt sensitive information such as login credentials.
Impact / Risks
Unable to login to Horizon Admin Console, hence unable to manage the Horizon Environment as a Horizon Admin.
Resolution
Take a backup of ADAM Database (1008046)Connect to the View ADAM LDAP Database (2012377)Modify pae-NameValuePair which is in this path CN=Common,OU=Global,OU=Properties,DC=vdi,DC=vmware,DC=int by removing the entry cs-disableKeyDerivation=1 or setting it to cs-disableKeyDerivation=0
Save and launch Horizon Admin Console in a new browser session
