6.5.1

Table Of Contents
Procedure
1 Generate a new self-signed certificate and private key.
certool --genselfcacert --outprivkey <key_file_path> --outcert <cert_file_path> --config
<config_file>
2 Replace the existing root certificate with the new certificate.
certool --rootca --cert <cert_file_path> --privkey <key_file_path>
The command generates the certificate, adds it to vmdir, and adds it to VECS.
3 Stop all services and start the services that handle certificate creation, propagation, and storage.
The service names differ on Windows and the vCenter Server Appliance.
Windows
service-control --stop --all
service-control --start VMWareAfdService
service-control --start VMWareDirectoryService
service-control --start VMWareCertificateService
vCenter Server
Appliance
service-control --stop --all
service-control --start vmafdd
service-control --start vmdird
service-control --start vmcad
4 (Optional) Publish the new root certificate to vmdir.
dir-cli trustedcert publish --cert newRoot.crt
The command updates all instances of vmdir immediately. If you don't run the command, propagation
of the new certificate to all nodes might take a while.
5 Restart all services.
service-control --start --all
Example: Generate a New VMCA-Signed Root Certificate
The following example shows all the steps for verifying the current root CA information, and for
regenerating the root certificate.
1 (Optional) List the VMCA root certificate to make sure it is in the certificate store.
n
On a Platform Services Controller node or embedded installation:
C:\>"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\"certool --getrootca
Platform Services Controller Administration
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