telegraf: vsphere plugin does not connect locally

Relevant telegraf.conf:

# Telegraf configuration

# Telegraf is entirely plugin driven. All metrics are gathered from the
# declared inputs, and sent to the declared outputs.

# Plugins must be declared in here to be active.
# To deactivate a plugin, comment out the name and any variables.

# Use 'telegraf -config telegraf.conf -test' to see what metrics a config
# file would generate.

# Global tags can be specified here in key="value" format.
[global_tags]
  # dc = "us-east-1" # will tag all metrics with dc=us-east-1
  # rack = "1a"

# Configuration for telegraf agent
[agent]
  ## Default data collection interval for all inputs
  interval = "10s"
  ## Rounds collection interval to 'interval'
  ## ie, if interval="10s" then always collect on :00, :10, :20, etc.
  round_interval = true

  ## Telegraf will cache metric_buffer_limit metrics for each output, and will
  ## flush this buffer on a successful write.
  metric_buffer_limit = 1000
  ## Flush the buffer whenever full, regardless of flush_interval.
  flush_buffer_when_full = true

  ## Collection jitter is used to jitter the collection by a random amount.
  ## Each plugin will sleep for a random time within jitter before collecting.
  ## This can be used to avoid many plugins querying things like sysfs at the
  ## same time, which can have a measurable effect on the system.
  collection_jitter = "0s"

  ## Default flushing interval for all outputs. You shouldn't set this below
  ## interval. Maximum flush_interval will be flush_interval + flush_jitter
  flush_interval = "10s"
  ## Jitter the flush interval by a random amount. This is primarily to avoid
  ## large write spikes for users running a large number of telegraf instances.
  ## ie, a jitter of 5s and interval 10s means flushes will happen every 10-15s
  flush_jitter = "0s"

  ## Logging configuration:
  ## Run telegraf in debug mode
  debug = false
  ## Run telegraf in quiet mode
  quiet = false
  ## Specify the log file name. The empty string means to log to stdout.
  logfile = "/Program Files/Telegraf/telegraf.log"

  ## Override default hostname, if empty use os.Hostname()
  hostname = ""


###############################################################################
#                                  OUTPUTS                                    #
###############################################################################

# Configuration for influxdb server to send metrics to
[[outputs.influxdb]]
  # The full HTTP or UDP endpoint URL for your InfluxDB instance.
  # Multiple urls can be specified but it is assumed that they are part of the same
  # cluster, this means that only ONE of the urls will be written to each interval.
  # urls = ["udp://127.0.0.1:8089"] # UDP endpoint example
  urls = ["http://172.27.200.17:8086"] # required
  # The target database for metrics (telegraf will create it if not exists)
  database = "telegraf" # required
  # Precision of writes, valid values are "ns", "us" (or "µs"), "ms", "s", "m", "h".
  # note: using second precision greatly helps InfluxDB compression
  precision = "s"

  ## Write timeout (for the InfluxDB client), formatted as a string.
  ## If not provided, will default to 5s. 0s means no timeout (not recommended).
  timeout = "5s"
  # username = "telegraf"
  # password = "metricsmetricsmetricsmetrics"
  # Set the user agent for HTTP POSTs (can be useful for log differentiation)
  # user_agent = "telegraf"
  # Set UDP payload size, defaults to InfluxDB UDP Client default (512 bytes)
  # udp_payload = 512


###############################################################################
#                                  INPUTS                                     #
###############################################################################

# Windows Performance Counters plugin.
# These are the recommended method of monitoring system metrics on windows,
# as the regular system plugins (inputs.cpu, inputs.mem, etc.) rely on WMI,
# which utilize more system resources.
#
# See more configuration examples at:
#   https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/win_perf_counters

[[inputs.win_perf_counters]]
  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Processor usage, alternative to native, reports on a per core.
    ObjectName = "Processor"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "% Idle Time",
      "% Interrupt Time",
      "% Privileged Time",
      "% User Time",
      "% Processor Time",
      "% DPC Time",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_cpu"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    IncludeTotal=true

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Disk times and queues
    ObjectName = "LogicalDisk"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "% Idle Time",
      "% Disk Time",
      "% Disk Read Time",
      "% Disk Write Time",
      "Current Disk Queue Length",
      "% Free Space",
      "Free Megabytes",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_disk"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    ObjectName = "PhysicalDisk"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "Disk Read Bytes/sec",
      "Disk Write Bytes/sec",
      "Current Disk Queue Length",
      "Disk Reads/sec",
      "Disk Writes/sec",
      "% Disk Time",
      "% Disk Read Time",
      "% Disk Write Time",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_diskio"

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    ObjectName = "Network Interface"
    Instances = ["*"]
    Counters = [
      "Bytes Received/sec",
      "Bytes Sent/sec",
      "Packets Received/sec",
      "Packets Sent/sec",
      "Packets Received Discarded",
      "Packets Outbound Discarded",
      "Packets Received Errors",
      "Packets Outbound Errors",
    ]
    Measurement = "win_net"

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    ObjectName = "System"
    Counters = [
      "Context Switches/sec",
      "System Calls/sec",
      "Processor Queue Length",
      "System Up Time",
    ]
    Instances = ["------"]
    Measurement = "win_system"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Example query where the Instance portion must be removed to get data back,
    # such as from the Memory object.
    ObjectName = "Memory"
    Counters = [
      "Available Bytes",
      "Cache Faults/sec",
      "Demand Zero Faults/sec",
      "Page Faults/sec",
      "Pages/sec",
      "Transition Faults/sec",
      "Pool Nonpaged Bytes",
      "Pool Paged Bytes",
      "Standby Cache Reserve Bytes",
      "Standby Cache Normal Priority Bytes",
      "Standby Cache Core Bytes",

    ]
    # Use 6 x - to remove the Instance bit from the query.
    Instances = ["------"]
    Measurement = "win_mem"
    # Set to true to include _Total instance when querying for all (*).
    #IncludeTotal=false

  [[inputs.win_perf_counters.object]]
    # Example query where the Instance portion must be removed to get data back,
    # such as from the Paging File object.
    ObjectName = "Paging File"
    Counters = [
      "% Usage",
    ]
    Instances = ["_Total"]
    Measurement = "win_swap"



# Windows system plugins using WMI (disabled by default, using
# win_perf_counters over WMI is recommended)

# # Read metrics about cpu usage
# [[inputs.cpu]]
#   ## Whether to report per-cpu stats or not
#   percpu = true
#   ## Whether to report total system cpu stats or not
#   totalcpu = true
#   ## Comment this line if you want the raw CPU time metrics
#   fielddrop = ["time_*"]


# # Read metrics about disk usage by mount point
# [[inputs.disk]]
#   ## By default, telegraf gather stats for all mountpoints.
#   ## Setting mountpoints will restrict the stats to the specified mountpoints.
#   ## mount_points=["/"]
#
#   ## Ignore some mountpoints by filesystem type. For example (dev)tmpfs (usually
#   ## present on /run, /var/run, /dev/shm or /dev).
#   # ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs", "devfs", "overlay", "aufs", "squashfs"]


# # Read metrics about disk IO by device
# [[inputs.diskio]]
#   ## By default, telegraf will gather stats for all devices including
#   ## disk partitions.
#   ## Setting devices will restrict the stats to the specified devices.
#   ## devices = ["sda", "sdb"]
#   ## Uncomment the following line if you do not need disk serial numbers.
#   ## skip_serial_number = true


# # Read metrics about memory usage
# [[inputs.mem]]
#   # no configuration


# # Read metrics about swap memory usage
# [[inputs.swap]]
#   # no configuration

# Read metrics from one or many vCenters
[[inputs.vsphere]]
    ## List of vCenter URLs to be monitored. These three lines must be uncommented
  ## and edited for the plugin to work.
  vcenters = [ "https://localhost:9443/" ]
  username = "username"
  password = "password"

  ## VMs
  ## Typical VM metrics (if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected)
  vm_metric_include = [
    "cpu.demand.average",
    "cpu.idle.summation",
    "cpu.latency.average",
    "cpu.readiness.average",
    "cpu.ready.summation",
    "cpu.run.summation",
    "cpu.usagemhz.average",
    "cpu.used.summation",
    "cpu.wait.summation",
    "mem.active.average",
    "mem.granted.average",
    "mem.latency.average",
    "mem.swapin.average",
    "mem.swapinRate.average",
    "mem.swapout.average",
    "mem.swapoutRate.average",
    "mem.usage.average",
    "mem.vmmemctl.average",
    "net.bytesRx.average",
    "net.bytesTx.average",
    "net.droppedRx.summation",
    "net.droppedTx.summation",
    "net.usage.average",
    "power.power.average",    
    "virtualDisk.numberReadAveraged.average",
    "virtualDisk.numberWriteAveraged.average",
    "virtualDisk.read.average",
    "virtualDisk.readOIO.latest",
    "virtualDisk.throughput.usage.average",
    "virtualDisk.totalReadLatency.average",
    "virtualDisk.totalWriteLatency.average",
    "virtualDisk.write.average",
    "virtualDisk.writeOIO.latest",
    "sys.uptime.latest",
  ]
  # vm_metric_exclude = [] ## Nothing is excluded by default
  # vm_instances = true ## true by default

  ## Hosts 
  ## Typical host metrics (if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected)
  host_metric_include = [
    "cpu.coreUtilization.average",
    "cpu.costop.summation",
    "cpu.demand.average",
    "cpu.idle.summation",
    "cpu.latency.average",
    "cpu.readiness.average",
    "cpu.ready.summation",
    "cpu.swapwait.summation",
    "cpu.usage.average",
    "cpu.usagemhz.average",
    "cpu.used.summation",
    "cpu.utilization.average",
    "cpu.wait.summation",
    "disk.deviceReadLatency.average",
    "disk.deviceWriteLatency.average",
    "disk.kernelReadLatency.average",
    "disk.kernelWriteLatency.average",
    "disk.numberReadAveraged.average",
    "disk.numberWriteAveraged.average",
    "disk.read.average",
    "disk.totalReadLatency.average",
    "disk.totalWriteLatency.average",
    "disk.write.average",
    "mem.active.average",
    "mem.latency.average",
    "mem.state.latest",
    "mem.swapin.average",
    "mem.swapinRate.average",
    "mem.swapout.average",
    "mem.swapoutRate.average",
    "mem.totalCapacity.average",
    "mem.usage.average",
    "mem.vmmemctl.average",
    "net.bytesRx.average",
    "net.bytesTx.average",
    "net.droppedRx.summation",
    "net.droppedTx.summation",
    "net.errorsRx.summation",
    "net.errorsTx.summation",
    "net.usage.average",
    "power.power.average",
    "storageAdapter.numberReadAveraged.average",
    "storageAdapter.numberWriteAveraged.average",
    "storageAdapter.read.average",
    "storageAdapter.write.average",
    "sys.uptime.latest",
  ]
  # host_metric_exclude = [] ## Nothing excluded by default
   host_instances = true ## true by default

  ## Clusters 
  # cluster_metric_include = [] ## if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected
  # cluster_metric_exclude = [] ## Nothing excluded by default
   cluster_instances = true ## true by default

  ## Datastores 
  # datastore_metric_include = [] ## if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected
  # datastore_metric_exclude = [] ## Nothing excluded by default
   datastore_instances = false ## false by default for Datastores only

  ## Datacenters
  datacenter_metric_include = [] ## if omitted or empty, all metrics are collected
  datacenter_metric_exclude = [ "*" ] ## Datacenters are not collected by default.
   datacenter_instances = false ## false by default for Datastores only

  ## Plugin Settings  
  ## separator character to use for measurement and field names (default: "_")
  # separator = "_"

  ## number of objects to retreive per query for realtime resources (vms and hosts)
  ## set to 64 for vCenter 5.5 and 6.0 (default: 256)
  # max_query_objects = 256

  ## number of metrics to retreive per query for non-realtime resources (clusters and datastores)
  ## set to 64 for vCenter 5.5 and 6.0 (default: 256)
  # max_query_metrics = 256

  ## number of go routines to use for collection and discovery of objects and metrics
  # collect_concurrency = 1
  # discover_concurrency = 1

  ## whether or not to force discovery of new objects on initial gather call before collecting metrics
  ## when true for large environments this may cause errors for time elapsed while collecting metrics
  ## when false (default) the first collection cycle may result in no or limited metrics while objects are discovered
  # force_discover_on_init = false

  ## the interval before (re)discovering objects subject to metrics collection (default: 300s)
  # object_discovery_interval = "300s"

  ## timeout applies to any of the api request made to vcenter
  # timeout = "20s"

  ## Optional SSL Config
  # ssl_ca = "/path/to/cafile"
  # ssl_cert = "/path/to/certfile"
  # ssl_key = "/path/to/keyfile"
  ## Use SSL but skip chain & host verification
   insecure_skip_verify = true

System info:

Windows 2012 R2 Server Telegraf 1.8.0 RC2

Steps to reproduce:

Trying different ways of introducing the vsphere plugin. Always same logfile output.

Expected behavior:

Data should be collected without error.

Actual behavior:

04T17:11:43Z I! Loaded processors: 
2018-10-04T17:11:43Z I! Loaded outputs: influxdb
2018-10-04T17:11:43Z I! Tags enabled: host=TMCFPWVC01
2018-10-04T17:11:43Z I! Agent Config: Interval:10s, Quiet:false, Hostname:"TMCFPWVC01", Flush Interval:10s 
2018-10-04T17:11:50Z E! [input.vsphere]: Error in discovery for localhost:9443: expected element type <Envelope> but have <html>
2018-10-04T17:11:50Z E! Error in plugin [inputs.vsphere]: expected element type <Envelope> but have <html>
2018-10-04T17:12:00Z E! Error in plugin [inputs.vsphere]: expected element type <Envelope> but have <html>
2018-10-04T17:12:10Z E! Error in plugin [inputs.vsphere]: expected element type <Envelope> but have <html>
2018-10-04T17:12:20Z E! Error in plugin