PowerChute Network Shutdown v5 reports "Could not connect to Host over the network."

Issue:
PowerChute Network Shutdown v5 reports "Could not connect to Host over the network." when configuring with VMware ESXi 8 host.



Product:
PowerChute Network Shutdown version 5

Environment:
VMware ESXi 7 or 8 host that VMware vCenter Server does not manage.

Cause:
Security certificate created with the CN= localhost.localdomain
During the installation of ESXi, the installer generates a self-signed certificate for each ESXi host, but the process is performed before the ESXi identity is configured. This means all ESXi hosts have a common name in their self-signed certificate of localhost.localdomain.




Solution:
1 - Verify that the ESXi host IP address and/or domain name have been entered correctly.
2 - Verify the ESXi host can be pinged from the PowerChute VM or server PowerChute is running on.
3 - Review the security certificate presented by the host. It should contain the host IP address or domain name as the CN.

Option 1: Regenerating ESXi Self-Signed Certificates Using Built-In Tools

1 - Login to the ESXi host over SSH
a. Requires ESXi shell and SSH access to be enabled on the host

2 - Back up the existing certificate files