VMware Vsphere CLI – libeay32.dll error on 64bit Windows 7

So today I installed VMware Vsphere CLI 5.5. The installation asked me to upgrade from a previous version, not sure what it was, so I did.

I needed to execute some vicfg- commands on a host and upon running my first command,which was vicfg-advcfg , an error popped up saying

“The ordinal 3873 could not be located in the dynamic link library LIBEAY32.dll.”

Apparently, the number varies. Others who reported this error got different numbers but that error is only part of the problem. The CLI window showed the below error:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LC_ALL = (unset),
LANG = (unset)
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale (“C”).
Crypt::SSLeay is required for https connections, but could not be loaded: Can’t
load ‘C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/site/lib/auto/Crypt/
SSLeay/SSLeay.dll’ for module Crypt::SSLeay: load_file:The operating system cann
ot run %1 at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/lib/DynaLoade
r.pm line 230.
at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/lib/VMware/VICommon.pm
line 514
Compilation failed in require at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CL
I/Perl/lib/VMware/VICommon.pm line 514.

The error above is actually 2 errors. The first part is telling me that there is a problem with the set locale. The locale is set in Regional and Language options. Since I had this set to Maltese(Malta), I thought this was the problem. Before troubleshooting the issue, I ran a few esxcli commands and they worked. I changed the regional settings to English UK and ran the command again.

This time it showed me the second part of the error and the same popup window.

Crypt::SSLeay is required for https connections, but could not be loaded: Can’t
load ‘C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/site/lib/auto/Crypt/
SSLeay/SSLeay.dll’ for module Crypt::SSLeay: load_file:The operating system cann
ot run %1 at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/lib/DynaLoade
r.pm line 230, <STDIN> line 2.
at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CLI/Perl/lib/VMware/VICommon.pm
line 514
Compilation failed in require at C:/Program Files (x86)/VMware/VMware vSphere CL
I/Perl/lib/VMware/VICommon.pm line 514, <STDIN> line 2.

After googling around, I found this post at pcloadletter.co.uk. Here the author mentioned that by using PPM you can remove the Crypt-SSLeay package. In my case this did not work and resulted in the same error. Some commenters mentioned that installing a later version from PPM GUI worked for them.

I tried installing a later version, 0.57 was listed, but I kept getting authorization errors.

Apparently the package ended up as part of the Business Edition content at Active Perl, which requires a Business Edition License. More details can be found in the FAQ.

This means that I had to install the download manually and from an alternate source. After some googling I found a link that worked. The version available at the time of writing was 0.72 and available from:

http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppmdir.html

The direct link to the Crypt-SSLeay PPD is:

http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/Crypt-SSLeay.ppd

Therefore, I opened up a command prompt window and ran the below command to update Crypt-SSLeay

ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/Crypt-SSLeay.ppd

This updated my current version to 0.72

I tested the vicfg command again and all worked properly.

Hope someone finds this useful. I know it took me a while to get all the pieces together. Hopefully this post will spare you some time!