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Table Of Contents
Table 37. Stores in VECS (Continued)
Store Description
vSphere Certificate Manager Utility backup store
(BACKUP_STORE)
Used by VMCA (VMware Certificate Manager) to support
certificate revert. Only the most recent state is stored as a
backup, you cannot go back more than one step.
Other stores Other stores might be added by solutions. For example, the
Virtual Volumes solution adds an SMS store. Do not modify the
certificates in those stores unless VMware documentation or a
VMware Knowledge Base article instructs you to do so.
Note Deleting the TRUSTED_ROOTS_CRLS store can
damage your certificate infrastructure. Do not delete or modify
the TRUSTED_ROOTS_CRLS store.
The vCenter Single Sign-On service stores the token signing certificate and its SSL certificate on disk.
You can change the token signing certificate from the vSphere Client.
Some certificates are stored on the filesystem, either temporarily during startup or permanently. Do not
change the certificates on the file system. Use vecs-cli to perform operations on certificates that are
stored in VECS.
Note Do not change any certificate files on disk unless instructed by VMware documentation or
Knowledge Base Articles. Unpredictable behavior might result otherwise.
Managing Certificate Revocation
If you suspect that one of your certificates has been compromised, replace all existing certificates,
including the VMCA root certificate.
vSphere 6.0 supports replacing certificates but does not enforce certificate revocation for ESXi hosts or
for vCenter Server systems.
Remove revoked certificates from all nodes. If you do not remove revoked certificates, a man-in-the-
middle attack might enable compromise through impersonation with the account's credentials.
Certificate Replacement in Large Deployments
Certificate replacement in deployments that include multiple management nodes and one or more
Platform Services Controller nodes is similar to replacement in embedded deployments. In both cases,
you can use the vSphere Certificate Management utility or replace certificates manually. Some best
practices guide the replacement process.
Platform Services Controller Administration
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