6.7
Table Of Contents
- Platform Services Controller Administration
- Contents
- About Platform Services Controller Administration
- Getting Started with Platform Services Controller
- vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Deployment Types
- Deployment Topologies with External Platform Services Controller Instances and High Availability
- Understanding vSphere Domains, Domain Names, and Sites
- Platform Services Controller Capabilities
- Managing Platform Services Controller Services
- Managing the Platform Services Controller Appliance
- vSphere Authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On
- Understanding vCenter Single Sign-On
- Configuring vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Sources
- Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication
- Using vCenter Single Sign-On as the Identity Provider for Another Service Provider
- Security Token Service STS
- Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Policies
- Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Users and Groups
- Add vCenter Single Sign-On Users
- Disable and Enable vCenter Single Sign-On Users
- Delete a vCenter Single Sign-On User
- Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On User
- Add a vCenter Single Sign-On Group
- Add Members to a vCenter Single Sign-On Group
- Remove Members from a vCenter Single Sign-On Group
- Delete vCenter Single Sign-On Solution Users
- Change Your vCenter Single Sign-On Password
- vCenter Single Sign-On Security Best Practices
- vSphere Security Certificates
- Certificate Requirements for Different Solution Paths
- Certificate Management Overview
- Managing Certificates with the vSphere Client
- Managing Certificates from the vSphere Web Client
- Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility
- Certificate Manager Options and the Workflows in This Document
- Regenerate a New VMCA Root Certificate and Replace All Certificates
- Make VMCA an Intermediate Certificate Authority (Certificate Manager)
- Generate CSR with vSphere Certificate Manager and Prepare Root Certificate (Intermediate CA)
- Replace VMCA Root Certificate with Custom Signing Certificate and Replace All Certificates
- Replace Machine SSL Certificate with VMCA Certificate (Intermediate CA)
- Replace Solution User Certificates with VMCA Certificates (Intermediate CA)
- Replace All Certificates with Custom Certificate (Certificate Manager)
- Revert Last Performed Operation by Republishing Old Certificates
- Reset All Certificates
- Manual Certificate Replacement
- Managing Services and Certificates with CLI Commands
- Troubleshooting Platform Services Controller
- Determining the Cause of a Lookup Service Error
- Unable to Log In Using Active Directory Domain Authentication
- vCenter Server Login Fails Because the User Account Is Locked
- VMware Directory Service Replication Can Take a Long Time
- Export a Platform Services Controller Support Bundle
- Platform Services Controller Service Logs Reference
vSphere Authentication with
vCenter Single Sign-On 2
vCenter Single Sign-On is an authentication broker and security token exchange infrastructure. When a
user can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On, that user receives a SAML token. Going forward, the
user can use the SAML token to authenticate to vCenter services. The user can then perform the actions
that user has privileges for.
Because traffic is encrypted for all communications, and because only authenticated users can perform
the actions that they have privileges for, your environment is secure.
Starting with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Single Sign-On is part of the Platform Services Controller. The
Platform Services Controller contains the shared services that support vCenter Server and
vCenter Server components. These services include vCenter Single Sign-On, VMware Certificate
Authority, and License Service. See vCenter Server Installation and Setup for details on the
Platform Services Controller.
For the initial handshake, users authenticate with a user name and password, and solution users
authenticate with a certificate. For information on replacing solution user certificates, see Chapter 3
vSphere Security Certificates.
The next step is authorizing the users who can authenticate to perform certain tasks. In most cases, you
assign vCenter Server privileges, usually by assigning the user to a group that has a role. vSphere
includes other permission models such as global permissions. See the vSphere Security documentation.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
Understanding vCenter Single Sign-On
n
Configuring vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Sources
n
Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication
n
Using vCenter Single Sign-On as the Identity Provider for Another Service Provider
n
Security Token Service STS
n
Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Policies
n
Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Users and Groups
n
vCenter Single Sign-On Security Best Practices
VMware, Inc.
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