6.5.1

Table Of Contents
2 Replace Machine SSL Certificate with Custom Certificate
The machine SSL certificate is used by the reverse proxy service on every management node,
Platform Services Controller, and embedded deployment. Each machine must have a machine SSL
certificate for secure communication with other services. You can replace the certificate on each
node with a custom certificate.
3 Replace Solution User Certificates with Custom Certificates
Many companies only require that you replace certificates of services that are accessible externally.
However, Certificate Manager also supports replacing solution user certificates. Solution users are
collections of services, for example, all services that are associated with the vSphere Web Client In
multi-node deployments replace the machine solution user certificate on the
Platform Services Controller and the full set of solution users on each management node.
Generate Certificate Signing Requests with vSphere Certificate Manager
(Custom Certificates)
You can use vSphere Certificate Manager to generate Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) that you can
then use with your enterprise CA or send to an external certificate authority. You can use the certificates
with the different supported certificate replacement processes.
You can run the Certificate Manager tool from the command line as follows:
Windows
C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certificate-manager.bat
Linux
/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager
Prerequisites
vSphere Certificate Manager prompts you for information. The prompts depend on your environment and
on the type of certificate you want to replace.
n
For any CSR generation, you are prompted for the password of the administrator@vsphere.local
user, or for the administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain that you are connecting to.
n
If you are generating a CSR in an environment with an external Platform Services Controller, you are
prompted for the host name or IP address of the Platform Services Controller.
n
To generate a CSR for a machine SSL certificate, you are prompted for certificate properties, which
are stored in the certool.cfg file. For most fields, you can accept the default or provide site-specific
values. The FQDN of the machine is required.
Procedure
1 On each machine in your environment, start vSphere Certificate Manager and select option 1.
2 Supply the password and the Platform Services Controller IP address or host name if prompted.
Platform Services Controller Administration
VMware, Inc. 116