6.5.1

Table Of Contents
Table 35. Core Identity Services
Service Description Included in
VMware Directory Service (vmdir) Handles SAML certificate management for
authentication in conjunction with vCenter Single
Sign-On.
Platform Services Controller
Embedded deployment
VMware Certificate Authority
(VMCA)
Issues certificates for VMware solution users,
machine certificates for machines on which services
are running, and ESXi host certificates. VMCA can be
used as is, or as an intermediary certificate authority.
VMCA issues certificates only to clients that can
authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On in the same
domain.
Platform Services Controller
Embedded deployment
VMware Authentication Framework
Daemon (VMAFD)
Includes the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store
(VECS) and several other authentication services.
VMware administrators interact with VECS; the other
services are used internally.
Platform Services Controller
vCenter Server
Embedded deployment
VMware Endpoint Certificate Store Overview
VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) serves as a local (client-side) repository for certificates,
private keys, and other certificate information that can be stored in a keystore. You can decide not to use
VMCA as your certificate authority and certificate signer, but you must use VECS to store all vCenter
certificates, keys, and so on. ESXi certificates are stored locally on each host and not in VECS.
VECS runs as part of the VMware Authentication Framework Daemon (VMAFD). VECS runs on every
embedded deployment, Platform Services Controller node, and management node and holds the
keystores that contain the certificates and keys.
VECS polls VMware Directory Service (vmdir) periodically for updates to the TRUSTED_ROOTS store.
You can also explicitly manage certificates and keys in VECS using vecs-cli commands. See vecs-cli
Command Reference.
VECS includes the following stores.
Table 36. Stores in VECS
Store Description
Machine SSL store (MACHINE_SSL_CERT)
n
Used by the reverse proxy service on every vSphere node.
n
Used by the VMware Directory Service (vmdir) on
embedded deployments and on each
Platform Services Controller node.
All services in vSphere 6.0 communicate through a reverse
proxy, which uses the machine SSL certificate. For backward
compatibility, the 5.x services still use specific ports. As a result,
some services such as vpxd still have their own port open.
Trusted root store (TRUSTED_ROOTS) Contains all trusted root certificates.
Platform Services Controller Administration
VMware, Inc. 91