ONTAP Tools for VMware vSphere: 'Certificate installation on ONTAP failed' error when adding direct SVMs to OTV

Applies to

• NetApp ONTAP Tools for VMware vSphere (OTV) 9.x
• Direct SVM Management

Issue

When attempting to add direct SVMs into OTV 9.x or re-authenticating after renewing client certificates, the following error can be seen from the vCenter plugin UI:

An error occurred while adding Storage System. Certificate installation on ONTAP failed with status code: 403

From OTV vsc.log, similar errors can be seen:

[2025-07-15T18:07:02,537Z] [qtp1972772630-20] [ERROR] StorageSystemConfigurationUtils.installCertificateOnOntap() certificate installation on ONTAP failed with status code : 403
[2025-07-15T18:07:02,537Z] [qtp1972772630-20] [ INFO] StorageSystemConfigurationUtils.installCertificateOnOntap() response : {
  "error": {
    "message": "not authorized for that command",
    "code": "6"
  }
}
[2025-07-15T18:07:02,537Z] [qtp1972772630-20] [ERROR] StorageSystemConfigurationUtils.configureCertBasedAuthMechanism(): Failed to configure cert based authentication with ONTAP : Exception -
com.netapp.nvpf.api.model.ApiException: Certificate installation on ONTAP failed with status code: 403