VMware ESXI - 6.7 Administrator’s Guide

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Platform Services Controller Administration

17 APR 2018 VMware vSphere 6.7 VMware ESXi 6.7 vCenter Server 6.7

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Platform Services Controller Administration

You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at:

https://docs.vmware.com/

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to

docfeedback@vmware.com

VMware, Inc.

3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com

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About Platform Services Controller Administration 5

Getting Started with Platform Services Controller 7

vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Deployment Types 7

Deployment Topologies with External Platform Services Controller Instances and High Availability 11

Understanding vSphere Domains, Domain Names, and Sites 13

Platform Services Controller Capabilities 14

Managing Platform Services Controller Services 15

Managing the Platform Services Controller Appliance 19

vSphere Authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On 22

Understanding vCenter Single Sign-On 23

Configuring vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Sources 30

Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication 37

Using vCenter Single Sign-On as the Identity Provider for Another Service Provider 52

Security Token Service STS 53

Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Policies 59

Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Users and Groups 63

vCenter Single Sign-On Security Best Practices 70

vSphere Security Certificates 72

Certificate Requirements for Different Solution Paths 73

Certificate Management Overview 77

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Client 90

Managing Certificates from the vSphere Web Client 97

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility 98

Manual Certificate Replacement 113

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Managing Services and Certificates with CLI Commands 147

Required Privileges for Running CLIs 148

Changing the certool Configuration Options 149

certool Initialization Commands Reference 150

certool Management Commands Reference 153

vecs-cli Command Reference 156

dir-cli Command Reference 162

Troubleshooting Platform Services Controller 169

Determining the Cause of a Lookup Service Error 169

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Unable to Log In Using Active Directory Domain Authentication 170

vCenter Server Login Fails Because the User Account Is Locked 172

VMware Directory Service Replication Can Take a Long Time 173

Export a Platform Services Controller Support Bundle 173

Platform Services Controller Service Logs Reference 174

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About

Platform Services Controller

Administration

The Platform Services Controller Administration documentation explains how the VMware

Platform Services Controller™ fits into your vSphere environment and helps you perform common tasks such as certificate management and vCenter Single Sign-On configuration.

Platform Services Controller Administration explains how you can set up authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On and how to manage certificates for vCenter Server and related services.

Table 1.

Topics Content Highlights

Getting Started with Platform Services Controller

vSphere Authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On

Platform Services Controller Administration

vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller deployment models. NOTE: This information changes with each release of the product.

Platform Services Controller services on Linux and Windows.

Managing Platform Services Controller services.

Managing the Platform Services Controller appliance using VAMI.

Architecture of the authentication process.

How to add identity sources so users in your domain can authenticate.

Two-factor authentication.

Managing users, groups, and policies.

Highlights

vSphere Security Certificates

Certificate model, and options for replacing certificates.

Replace certificates from the UI (simple cases).

Replace certificates using the Certificate Manager utility.

Replace certificates using the CLI (complex situations).

Certificate management CLI reference.

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

vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Deployment Types

You can deploy the vCenter Server Appliance or install vCenter Server for Windows with an embedded or external Platform Services Controller. You can also deploy a Platform Services Controller as an appliance or install it on Windows. If necessary, you can use a mixed operating systems environment.

Before you deploy the vCenter Server Appliance or install vCenter Server for Windows, you must determine the deployment model that is suitable for your environment. For each deployment or installation, you must select one of the three deployment types.

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Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services Controller Administration

Table 1‑1. vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Deployment Types

Deployment Type Description

vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller All services that are bundled with the

Platform Services Controller are deployed together with the vCenter Server services on the same virtual machine or physical server.

Platform Services Controller Only the services that are bundled with the

Platform Services Controller are deployed on the virtual machine or physical server.

vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller

(Requires external Platform Services Controller)

Only the vCenter Server services are deployed on the virtual machine or physical server.

You must register such a vCenter Server instance with a Platform Services Controller instance that you previously deployed or installed.

vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller

Using an embedded Platform Services Controller results in a standalone deployment that has its own vCenter Single Sign-On domain with a single site. vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller is suitable for small environments. You cannot join other vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller instances to this vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

Figure 1‑1. vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller

Installing vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller has the following advantages:

The connection between vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller is not over the network, and vCenter Server is not prone to outages caused by connectivity and name resolution issues between vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller.

If you install vCenter Server on Windows virtual machines or physical servers, you need fewer Windows licenses.

You manage fewer virtual machines or physical servers.

Installing vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller has the following disadvantages:

There is a Platform Services Controller for each product which might be more than required and which consumes more resources.

The model is suitable only for small-scale environments.

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Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

vCenter Server

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

vCenter Server

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

Platform Services Controller Administration

You can configure the vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller in vCenter High Availability configuration. For information, see vSphere Availability.

Note After you deploy or install vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller, you can

reconfigure the deployment type and switch to vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller.

Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server with an External Platform Services Controller

When you deploy or install a Platform Services Controller instance, you can create a vCenter Single SignOn domain or join an existing vCenter Single Sign-On domain. Joined Platform Services Controller instances replicate their infrastructure data, such as authentication and licensing information, and can span multiple vCenter Single Sign-On sites. For information, see Understanding vSphere Domains,

Domain Names, and Sites.

You can register multiple vCenter Server instances with one common external Platform Services Controller instance. The vCenter Server instances assume the vCenter Single Sign-On site of the Platform Services Controller instance with which they are registered. All vCenter Server instances that are registered with one common or different joined Platform Services Controller instances are connected in Enhanced Linked Mode.

Figure 1‑2. Example of Two vCenter Server Instances with a Common External Platform Services Controller

Installing vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller has the following advantages:

Fewer resources consumed by the shared services in the Platform Services Controller instances.

The model is suitable for large-scale environments.

Installing vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller has the following disadvantages:

The connection between vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller might have connectivity and name resolution issues.

If you install vCenter Server on Windows virtual machines or physical servers, you need more Microsoft Windows licenses.

You must manage more virtual machines or physical servers.

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Platform Services

Controller on Windows

Windows Virtual Machine

or Physical Server

vCenter Server on Windows

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

vCenter Server Appliance

Virtual Machine

Platform Services

Controller Appliance

Virtual Machine

vCenter Server on Windows

Virtual Machine or Physical Server

vCenter Server Appliance

Virtual Machine

Platform Services Controller Administration

For information about the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server maximums, see the Configuration Maximums documentation.

For information about configuring the vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller in vCenter High Availability configuration, see vSphere Availability.

Mixed Operating Systems Environment

A vCenter Server instance installed on Windows can be registered with either a Platform Services Controller installed on Windows or a Platform Services Controller appliance. A vCenter Server Appliance can be registered with either a Platform Services Controller installed on Windows or a Platform Services Controller appliance. Both vCenter Server and the vCenter Server Appliance can be registered with the same Platform Services Controller.

Figure 1‑3. Example of a Mixed Operating Systems Environment with an External Platform Services Controller on Windows

Figure 1‑4. Example of a Mixed Operating Systems Environment with an External Platform Services Controller Appliance

Note To ensure easy manageability and maintenance, use only appliances or only Windows installations

of vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller.

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Load Balancer

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Platform Services Controller Administration

Deployment Topologies with External Platform Services Controller Instances and High Availability

To ensure Platform Services Controller high availability in external deployments, you must install or deploy at least two joined Platform Services Controller instances in your vCenter Single Sign-On domain. When you use a third-party load balancer, you can ensure an automatic failover without downtime.

Platform Services Controller with a Load Balancer

Figure 1‑5. Example of a Load Balanced Pair of Platform Services Controller Instances

You can use a third-party load balancer per site to configure Platform Services Controller high availability with automatic failover for this site. For information about the maximum number of Platform Services Controller instances behind a load balancer, see the Configuration Maximums documentation.

Important To configure Platform Services Controller high availability behind a load balancer, the

Platform Services Controller instances must be of the same operating system type. Mixed operating systems Platform Services Controller instances behind a load balancer are unsupported.

The vCenter Server instances are connected to the load balancer. When a Platform Services Controller instance stops responding, the load balancer automatically distributes the load among the other functional Platform Services Controller instances without downtime.

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Load Balancer

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Site 1

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Load Balancer

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Site 2

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Platform Services Controller Administration

Platform Services Controller with Load Balancers Across vCenter Single Sign-On Sites

Figure 1‑6. Example of Two Load Balanced Pairs of Platform Services Controller Instances Across Two Sites

Your vCenter Single Sign-On domain might span multiple sites. To ensure Platform Services Controller high availability with automatic failover throughout the domain, you must configure a separate load balancer in each site.

Platform Services Controller with No Load Balancer

Figure 1‑7. Example of Two Joined Platform Services Controller Instances with No a Load Balancer

When you join two or more Platform Services Controller instances in the same site with no load balancer, you configure Platform Services Controller high availability with a manual failover for this site.

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vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

vCenter Server

Platform Services

Controller

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Virtual Machine or

Physical Server

Site 1 Site 2

Platform Services Controller Administration

When a Platform Services Controller instance stops responding, you must manually fail over the vCenter Server instances that are registered to it. You fail over the instances by repointing them to other functional Platform Services Controller instances within the same site. For information about how to repoint vCenter Server instances to another external Platform Services Controller, see vCenter Server Installation and Setup.

Note If your vCenter Single Sign-On domain includes three or more Platform Services Controller

instances, you can manually create a ring topology. A ring topology ensures Platform Services Controller reliability when one of the instances fails. To create a ring topology, run the /usr/lib/vmware- vmdir/bin/vdcrepadmin -f createagreement command against the first and last Platform Services Controller instance that you have deployed.

Platform Services Controller with No Load Balancer Across vCenter Single Sign-On Sites

Figure 1‑8. Example of Two Joined Pairs of Platform Services Controller Instances Across Two Sites with No Load Balancer

Your vCenter Single Sign-On domain might span multiple sites. When no load balancer is available, you can manually repoint vCenter Server from a failed to a functional Platform Services Controller within the same site. For information about how to repoint vCenter Server instances to another external Platform Services Controller, see vCenter Server Installation and Setup.

Understanding vSphere Domains, Domain Names, and Sites

Each Platform Services Controller is associated with a vCenter Single Sign-On domain. The domain name defaults to vsphere.local, but you can change it during installation of the first Platform Services Controller. The domain determines the local authentication space. You can split a domain into multiple sites, and assign each Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server instance to a site. Sites are logical constructs, but usually correspond to geographic location.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Platform Services Controller Domain

When you install a Platform Services Controller, you are prompted to create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain or join an existing domain.

The domain name is used by the VMware Directory Service (vmdir) for all Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) internal structuring.

With vSphere 6.0 and later, you can give your vSphere domain a unique name. To prevent authentication conflicts, use a name that is not used by OpenLDAP, Microsoft Active Directory, and other directory services.

Note You cannot change the domain to which a Platform Services Controller or vCenter Server instance

belongs.

After you specify the name of your domain, you can add users and groups. It usually makes more sense to add an Active Directory or LDAP identity source and allow the users and groups in that identity source to authenticate. You can also add vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller instances, or other VMware products, such as vRealize Operations, to the domain.

Platform Services Controller Sites

You can organize Platform Services Controller domains into logical sites. A site in the VMware Directory Service is a logical container for grouping Platform Services Controller instances within a vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

You are prompted for the site name when you install or upgrade a Platform Services Controller. See the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation.

Platform Services Controller Capabilities

Platform Services Controller supports services such as identity management, certificate management, and license management in vSphere.

Key Capabilities

Platform Services Controller includes several services, discussed in Platform Services Controller

Services, and has the following key capabilities.

Authentication through vCenter Single Sign-On

Provisioning of vCenter Server components and ESXi hosts with VMware Certificate Manager (VMCA) certificates by default

Use of custom certificates, which are stored in the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS)

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Deployment Models

You can install Platform Services Controller on a Windows system or deploy the Platform Services Controller appliance.

The deployment model depends on the version of Platform Services Controller that you are using. See

vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Deployment Types.

Managing Platform Services Controller Services

You manage Platform Services Controller services from the vSphere Web Client, or by using one of the available scripts and CLIs.

Different Platform Services Controller services support different interfaces.

Table 1‑2. Interfaces for Managing Platform Services Controller Services

Interface Description

vSphere Client Web interface (HTML5-based client). The vSphere Client user

interface terminology, topology, and workflow are closely aligned with the same aspects and elements of the vSphere Web Client user interface.

vSphere Web Client Web interface for managing some of the services.

Certificate Management utility Command-line tool that supports CSR generation and certificate

replacement. See Managing Certificates with the vSphere

Certificate Manager Utility.

CLIs for managing Platform Services Controller services Set of commands for managing certificates, the VMware

Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS), and VMware Directory Service (vmdir). See Chapter 4 Managing Services and

Certificates with CLI Commands.

Platform Services Controller Services

With Platform Services Controller, all VMware products within the same environment can share the authentication domain and other services. Services include certificate management, authentication, and licensing.

Platform Services Controller includes the following core infrastructure services.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Table 1‑3. Platform Services Controller Services

Service Description

applmgmt

(VMware Appliance Management Service)

vmware-cis-license

(VMware License Service)

vmware-cm

(VMware Component Manager)

vmware-sts-idmd

(VMware Identity Management Service)

vmware-stsd

(VMware Security Token Service)

vmware-rhttpproxy

(VMware HTTP Reverse Proxy)

Handles appliance configuration and provides public API endpoints for appliance lifecycle management. Included on the Platform Services Controller appliance.

Each Platform Services Controller includes VMware License Service, which delivers centralized license management and reporting functionality to VMware products in your environment.

The license service inventory replicates across all Platform Services Controller in the domain at 30-second intervals.

Component manager provides service registration and lookup functionalities.

Services behind the vCenter Single Sign-On feature, which provide secure authentication services to VMware software components and users.

By using vCenter Single Sign-On, the VMware components communicate using a secure SAML token exchange mechanism. vCenter Single Sign-On constructs an internal security domain (vsphere.local by default) where the VMware software components are registered during installation or upgrade.

The reverse proxy runs on each Platform Services Controller node and each vCenter Server system. It is a single entry point into the node and enables services that run on the node to communicate securely.

vmware-sca

(VMware Service Control Agent)

vmware-statsmonitor

(VMware Appliance Monitoring Service)

vmware-vapi-endpoint

(VMware vAPI Endpoint)

vmafdd

VMware Authentication Framework

vmcad

VMware Certificate Service

Manages service configurations. You can use the service- control CLI to manage individual service configurations.

Monitor the vCenter Server Appliance guest operating system resource consumption.

The vSphere Automation API endpoint provides a single point of access to vAPI services. You can change the properties of the vAPI Endpoint service from the vSphere Web Client. See the vSphere Automation SDKs Programming Guide for details on vAPI endpoints.

Service that provides a client-side framework for vmdir authentication and serves the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS).

Provisions each VMware software component that has the vmafd client libraries and each ESXi host with a signed certificate that has VMCA as the root certificate authority. You can change the default certificates by using the Certificate Manager utility.

VMware Certificate Service uses the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) to serve as a local repository for certificates on every Platform Services Controller instance. Although you can decide not to use VMCA and instead can use custom certificates, you must add the certificates to VECS.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Table 1‑3. Platform Services Controller Services (Continued)

Service Description

vmdird

VMware Directory Service

vmdnsd

VMware Domain Name Service

vmonapi

VMware Lifecycle Manager API

vmware-vmon

VMware Service Lifecycle Manager

lwsmd

Likewise Service Manager

pschealth

VMware Platform Services Controller Health Monitor

vmware-analytics

VMware Analytics Service

Provides a multitenant, multimastered LDAP directory service that stores authentication, certificate, lookup, and license information. Do not update data in vmdird by using an LDAP browser.

If your domain contains more than one Platform Services Controller instance, an update of vmdir content in one vmdir instance is propagated to all other instances of vmdir.

Not used in vSphere 6.x.

Start and stop vCenter Server services and monitor service API health. The vmware-vmon service is a centralized platformindependent service that manages the lifecycle of Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server. Exposes APIs and CLIs to third-party applications.

Likewise facilitates joining the host to an Active Directory domain and subsequent user authentication.

Monitors the health and status of all core Platform Services Controller infrastructure services.

Consists of components that gather and upload telemetry data from various vSphere components to the VMware Analytics Cloud, and manage the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).

Manage Platform Services Controller Services From the vSphere Client

You can manage vCenter access control, licensing, solutions, linked domains, certificates, and Single Sign-On from the vSphere Client.

Procedure

1 Log in to a vCenter Server associated with the Platform Services Controller as a user with

administrator privileges in the local vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local by default).

2 Select Administration and click the item that you want to manage.

Manage Platform Services Controller Services From the vSphere Web Client

You can manage vCenter Single Sign-On and the Licensing service from the vSphere Web Client.

Use the vSphere Client or CLIs instead of the vSphere Web Client to manage the following services.

Certificates

VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS)

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Two-factor authentication such as Common Access Card authentication

Procedure

1 Log in to a vCenter Server associated with the Platform Services Controller as a user with

administrator privileges in the local vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local by default).

2 Select Administration and click the item that you want to manage.

Option Description

Single Sign-On Configure vCenter Single Sign-On.

Set policies.

Manage identity sources.

Manage the STS Signing certificate.

Manage SAML service providers.

Manage users and groups.

Licensing Configure licensing.

Use Scripts to Manage Platform Services Controller Services

Platform Services Controller includes scripts for generating CSRs, managing certificates and managing services.

For example, you can use the certool utility to generate CSRs and to replace certificates, both for scenarios with embedded Platform Services Controller and for scenarios with external Platform Services Controller. See Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility.

Use the CLIs for management tasks that the Web interfaces do not support, or to create custom scripts for your environment.

Table 1‑4. CLIs for Managing Certiﬁcates and Associated Services

CLI Description Links

certool

vecs-cli

dir-cli

Generate and manage certificates and keys. Part of VMCA.

Manage the contents of VMware Certificate Store instances. Part of VMAFD.

Create and update certificates in VMware Directory Service. Part of VMAFD.

certool Initialization Commands Reference

vecs-cli Command Reference

dir-cli Command Reference

sso-config

service-control

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Utility for configuring smart card authentication.

Command for starting, stopping, and listing services.

Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication

Run this command to stop services before running other CLI commands.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Procedure

1 Log in to the Platform Services Controller shell.

In most cases, you have to be the root or Administrator user. See Required Privileges for Running

CLIs for details.

2 Access a CLI at one of the following default locations.

The required privileges depend on the task that you want to perform. In some cases, you are prompted for the password twice to safeguard sensitive information.

Windows

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmafdd\vecs-

cli.exe

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmafdd\dir-cli.exe

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certool.exe

C:\Program Files\VMware\VCenter server\VMware Identity

Services\sso-config

VCENTER_INSTALL_PATH\bin\service-control

Linux

/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vecs-cli

/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/dir-cli

/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certool

/opt/vmware/bin

On Linux, the service-control command does not require that you specify the path.

Managing the Platform Services Controller Appliance

You can manage the Platform Services Controller appliance from the virtual appliance management interface or from the appliance shell.

If you are using an environment with an embedded Platform Services Controller, you manage the one appliance that includes both Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server. See vCenter Server Appliance Configuration.

Table 1‑5. Interfaces for Managing the Platform Services Controller Appliance

Interface Description

Platform Services Controller virtual appliance management interface (VAMI)

Platform Services Controller appliance shell Use this command-line interface to perform service

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Use this interface to reconfigure the system settings of a Platform Services Controller deployment.

management operations on VMCA, VECS, and VMDIR. See

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility and Chapter 4 Managing Services and Certificates with CLI Commands.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

Manage the Appliance with the Platform Services Controller Virtual Appliance Management Interface

In an environment with an external Platform Services Controller, you can use the Platform Services Controller virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) to configure the appliance system settings. Settings include time synchronization, network settings, and SSH login settings. You can also change the root password, join the appliance to an Active Directory domain, and leave an Active Directory domain.

In an environment with an embedded Platform Services Controller, you manage the appliances that include both Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 In a Web browser, go to the Web interface at https://platform_services_controller_ip:5480.

2 If a warning message about an untrusted SSL certificate appears, resolve the issue based on

company security policy and the Web browser that you are using.

3 Log in as root.

The default root password is the virtual appliance root password that you set when deploying the virtual appliance.

You can see the System Information page of the Platform Services Controller Appliance Management Interface.

Manage the Appliance from the Appliance Shell

You can use service management utilities and CLIs from the appliance shell. You can use TTY1 to log in to the console, or can use SSH to connect to the shell.

Procedure

1 Enable SSH login if necessary.

a Log in to the appliance management interface (VAMI) at https://platform_services_controller_ip:

5480.

b In the Navigator, select Access and click Edit.

c Toggle on Enable SSH Login and click OK.

You can follow the same steps to enable the Bash shell for the appliance.

2 Access the appliance shell.

If you have direct access to the appliance console, select Log in, and press Enter.

To connect remotely, use SSH or another remote console connection to start a session to the appliance.

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Platform Services Controller Administration

3 Log in as root with the password that you set when you initially deployed the appliance.

If you changed the root password, use the new password.

Add a Platform Services Controller Appliance to an Active Directory Domain

If you want to add an Active Directory identity source to Platform Services Controller, you must join the Platform Services Controller appliance to an Active Directory domain.

If you are using a Platform Services Controller instance that is installed on Windows, you can use the domain to which that machine belongs.

Procedure

1 Using the vSphere Client, log in to a vCenter Server associated with the Platform Services Controller

as a user with administrator privileges in the local vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local by default).

2 Select Administration.

3 Expand Single Sign On and click Configuration.

4 Click Active Directory Domain.

5 Click Join AD, specify the domain, optional organizational unit, and user name and password, and

click JOIN.

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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:

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

vCenter Single Sign-On Security Best Practices

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Kerberos

vSphere Web Client

VMware

Understanding vCenter Single Sign-On

To effectively manage vCenter Single Sign-On, you need to understand the underlying architecture and how it affects installation and upgrades.

vCenter Single Sign-On 6.0 Domains and Sites (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2296383276001?

bctid=ref:video_sso_6_domains_sites)

How vCenter Single Sign-On Protects Your Environment

vCenter Single Sign-On allows vSphere components to communicate with each other through a secure token mechanism.

vCenter Single Sign-On uses the following services.

STS (Security Token Service).

SSL for secure traffic.

Authentication of human users through Active Directory or OpenLDAP.

Authentication of solution users through certificates.

vCenter Single Sign-On Handshake for Human Users

The following illustration shows the handshake for human users.

Figure 2‑1. vCenter Single Sign-On Handshake for Human Users

1 A user logs in to the vSphere Client with a user name and password to access the vCenter Server

system or another vCenter service.

The user can also log in without a password and check the Use Windows session authentication check box.

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Kerberos

Solution User

VMware

vCenter Single Sign-On Components

vCenter Single Sign-On includes the Security Token Service (STS), an administration server, and vCenter Lookup Service, as well as the VMware Directory Service (vmdir). The VMware Directory Service is also used for certificate management.

During installation, the components are deployed as part an embedded deployment, or as part of the Platform Services Controller.

STS (Security Token

Service)

Administration server The administration server allows users with administrator privileges to

The STS service issues Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens. These security tokens represent the identity of a user in one of the identity source types supported byvCenter Single Sign-On. The SAML tokens allow both human users and solution users who authenticate successfully to vCenter Single Sign-On to use any vCenter service that vCenter Single Sign-On supports without authenticating again to each service.

The vCenter Single Sign-On service signs all tokens with a signing certificate, and stores the token signing certificate on disk. The certificate for the service itself is also stored on disk.

vCenter Single Sign-On to configure the vCenter Single Sign-On server and manage users and groups from the vSphere Web Client. Initially, only the user administrator@your_domain_name has these privileges. In vSphere

5.5, this user was administrator@vsphere.local. With vSphere 6.0, you can

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change the vSphere domain when you install vCenter Server or deploy the vCenter Server Appliance with a new Platform Services Controller. Do not name the domain name with your Microsoft Active Directory or OpenLDAP domain name.

VMware Directory

Service (vmdir)

The VMware Directory service (vmdir) is associated with the domain you specify during installation and is included in each embedded deployment and on each Platform Services Controller. This service is a multi-tenanted, multi-mastered directory service that makes an LDAP directory available on port 389. The service still uses port 11711 for backward compatibility with vSphere 5.5 and earlier systems.

If your environment includes more than one instance of the Platform Services Controller, an update of vmdir content in one vmdir instance is propagated to all other instances of vmdir.

Starting with vSphere 6.0, the VMware Directory Service stores not only vCenter Single Sign-On information but also certificate information.

Identity Management

Handles identity sources and STS authentication requests.

Service

How vCenter Single Sign-On Aects Installation

Starting with version 5.1, vSphere includes a vCenter Single Sign-On service as part of the vCenter Server management infrastructure. This change affects vCenter Server installation.

Authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On makes vSphere more secure because the vSphere software components communicate with each other by using a secure token exchange mechanism, and all other users also authenticate with vCenter Single Sign-On.

Starting with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Single Sign-On is either included in an embedded deployment, or part of the Platform Services Controller. The Platform Services Controller contains all of the services that are necessary for the communication between vSphere components including vCenter Single Sign-On, VMware Certificate Authority, VMware Lookup Service, and the licensing service.

The order of installation is important.

First installation If your installation is distributed, you must install the

Platform Services Controller before you install vCenter Server or deploy the vCenter Server Appliance. For an embedded deployment the correct installation order happens automatically.

Subsequent

installations

For approximately up to four vCenter Server instances, one Platform Services Controller can serve your entire vSphere environment. You can connect the new vCenter Server instances to the same Platform Services Controller. For more than approximately four vCenter Server instances, you can install an additional

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Platform Services Controller for better performance. The vCenter Single Sign-On service on each Platform Services Controller synchronizes authentication data with all other instances. The precise number depends on how heavily the vCenter Server instances are being used and on other factors.

For detailed information about the deployment models, the advantages and disadvantages of each deployment type, see vCenter Server Installation and Setup.

Using vCenter Single Sign-On with vSphere

When a user logs in to a vSphere component or when a vCenter Server solution user accesses another vCenter Server service, vCenter Single Sign-On performs authentication. Users must be authenticated with vCenter Single Sign-On and have the necessary privileges for interacting with vSphere objects.

vCenter Single Sign-On authenticates both solution users and other users.

Solution users represent a set of services in your vSphere environment. During installation, VMCA assigns a certificate to each solution user by default. The solution user uses that certificate to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On. vCenter Single Sign-On gives the solution user a SAML token, and the solution user can then interact with other services in the environment.

When other users log in to the environment, for example, from the vSphere Client, vCenter Single Sign-On prompts for a user name and password. If vCenter Single Sign-On finds a user with those credentials in the corresponding identity source, it assigns the user a SAML token. The user can now access other services in the environment without being prompted to authenticate again.

Which objects the user can view, and what a user can do, is usually determined by vCenter Server permission settings. vCenter Server administrators assign those permissions from the Permissions interface in the vSphere Web Client or the vSphere Client, not through vCenter Single Sign-On. See the vSphere Security documentation.

vCenter Single Sign-On and vCenter Server Users

Users authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On by entering their credentials on the login page. After connecting to vCenter Server, authenticated users can view all vCenter Server instances or other vSphere objects for which their role gives them privileges. No further authentication is required.

After installation, the administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, administrator@vsphere.local by default, has administrator access to both vCenter Single Sign-On and vCenter Server. That user can then add identity sources, set the default identity source, and manage users and groups in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

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All users that can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On can reset their password, even if the password has expired, as long as they know the password. See Change Your vCenter Single Sign-On Password. Only vCenter Single Sign-On administrators can reset the password for users who no longer have their password.

Note When you change the password for your SDDC from the vSphere Client, the new password is not

synchronized with the password that is displayed on the Default vCenter Credentials page. That page shows only the Default credentials. If you change the credentials, you are responsible for keeping track of the new password. Contact Technical Support and request a password change.

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrator Users

The vCenter Single Sign-On administrative interface is accessible from either the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

To configure vCenter Single Sign-On and manage vCenter Single Sign-On users and groups, the user administrator@vsphere.local or a user in the vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group must log in to the vSphere Client . Upon authentication, that user can access the vCenter Single Sign-On administration interface from the vSphere Client and manage identity sources and default domains, specify password policies, and perform other administrative tasks.

Note You cannot rename the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user, which is

administrator@vsphere.local by default or administrator@mydomain if you specified a different domain during installation. For improved security, consider creating additional named users in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain and assigning them administrative privileges. You can then stop using the administrator account.

ESXi Users

Standalone ESXi hosts are not integrated with vCenter Single Sign-On or with the Platform Services Controller. See vSphere Security for information on adding an ESXi host to Active Directory.

If you create local ESXi users for a managed ESXi host with the VMware Host Client, vCLI, or PowerCLI, vCenter Server is not aware those users. Creating local users can therefore result in confusion, especially if you use the same user names. Users who can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On can view and manage ESXi hosts if they have the corresponding permissions on the ESXi host object.

Note Manage permissions for ESXi hosts through vCenter Server if possible.

How to Log In to vCenter Server Components

You can log in by connecting to the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

When a user logs in to a vCenter Server system from the vSphere Client, the login behavior depends on whether the user is in the domain that is set as the default identity source.

Users who are in the default domain can log in with their user name and password.

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Users who are in a domain that has been added to vCenter Single Sign-On as an identity source but is not the default domain can log in to vCenter Server but must specify the domain in one of the following ways.

Including a domain name prefix, for example, MYDOMAIN\user1

Including the domain, for example, user1@mydomain.com

Users who are in a domain that is not a vCenter Single Sign-On identity source cannot log in to vCenter Server. If the domain that you add to vCenter Single Sign-On is part of a domain hierarchy, Active Directory determines whether users of other domains in the hierarchy are authenticated or not.

If your environment includes an Active Directory hierarchy, see VMware Knowledge Base article 2064250 for details on supported and unsupported setups.

Note Starting with vSphere 6.0 Update 2, two-factor authentication is supported. See Understanding

vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication.

Groups in the vCenter Single Sign-On Domain

The vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local by default) includes several predefined groups. Add users to one of those groups to enable them to perform the corresponding actions.

See Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Users and Groups.

For all objects in the vCenter Server hierarchy, you can assign permissions by pairing a user and a role with the object. For example, you can select a resource pool and give a group of users read privileges to that resource pool object by giving them the corresponding role.

For some services that are not managed by vCenter Server directly, membership in one of the vCenter Single Sign-On groups determines the privileges. For example, a user who is a member of the Administrator group can manage vCenter Single Sign-On. A user who is a member of the CAAdmins group can manage the VMware Certificate Authority, and a user who is in the LicenseService.Administrators group can manage licenses.

The following groups are predefined in vsphere.local.

Note Many of these groups are internal to vsphere.local or give users high-level administrative

privileges. Add users to any of these groups only after careful consideration of the risks.

Note Do not delete any of the predefined groups in the vsphere.local domain. If you do, errors with

authentication or certificate provisioning might result.

Table 2‑1. Groups in the vsphere.local Domain

Privilege Description

Users Users in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local by default).

SolutionUsers Solution users group vCenter services. Each solution user authenticates individually to

vCenter Single Sign-On with a certificate. By default, VMCA provisions solution users with certificates. Do not add members to this group explicitly.

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Table 2‑1. Groups in the vsphere.local Domain (Continued)

Privilege Description

CAAdmins Members of the CAAdmins group have administrator privileges for VMCA. Do not add

members to this group unless you have compelling reasons.

DCAdmins Members of the DCAdmins group can perform Domain Controller Administrator actions

on VMware Directory Service.

Note Do not manage the domain controller directly. Instead, use the vmdir CLI or

vSphere Web Client to perform corresponding tasks.

SystemConfiguration.BashShellAdministr ators

ActAsUsers Members of Act-As Users are allowed to get Act-As tokens from vCenter Single Sign-

ExternalIPDUsers This internal group is not used by vSphere. VMware vCloud Air requires this group.

SystemConfiguration.Administrators Members of the SystemConfiguration.Administrators group can view and manage the

DCClients This group is used internally to allow the management node access to data in VMware

ComponentManager.Administrators Members of the ComponentManager.Administrators group can invoke component

LicenseService.Administrators Members of LicenseService.Administrators have full write access to all licensing-related

This group is available only for vCenter Server Appliance deployments.

A user in this group can enable and disable access to the BASH shell. By default a user who connects to the vCenter Server Appliance with SSH can access only commands in the restricted shell. Users who are in this group can access the BASH shell.

On.

system configuration in the vSphere Web Client. These users can view, start and restart services, troubleshoot services, see the available nodes, and manage those nodes.

Directory Service.

Note Do not modify this group. Any changes might compromise your certificate

infrastructure.

manager APIs that register or unregister services, that is, modify services. Membership in this group is not necessary for read access on the services.

data and can add, remove, assign, and unassign serial keys for all product assets registered in the licensing service.

Administrators Administrators of the VMware Directory Service (vmdir). Members of this group can

perform vCenter Single Sign-On administration tasks. Do not add members to this group unless you have compelling reasons and understand the consequences.

Conﬁguring vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Sources

When a user logs in with just a user name, vCenter Single Sign-On checks in the default identity source whether that user can authenticate. When a user logs in and includes the domain name in the login screen, vCenter Single Sign-On checks the specified domain if that domain has been added as an identity source. You can add identity sources, remove identity sources, and change the default.

You configure vCenter Single Sign-On from the vSphere Client. To configure vCenter Single Sign-On, you must have vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges. Having vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges is different from having the Administrator role on vCenter Server or ESXi. In a new installation, only the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator (administrator@vsphere.local by default) can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.

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Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On

You can use identity sources to attach one or more domains to vCenter Single Sign-On. A domain is a repository for users and groups that the vCenter Single Sign-On server can use for user authentication.

Set the Default Domain for vCenter Single Sign-On

Each vCenter Single Sign-On identity source is associated with a domain. vCenter Single Sign-On uses the default domain to authenticate a user who logs in without a domain name. Users who belong to a domain that is not the default domain must include the domain name when they log in.

Add or Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Source

Users can log in to vCenter Server only if they are in a domain that has been added as a vCenter Single Sign-On identity source. vCenter Single Sign-On administrator users can add identity sources, or change the settings for identity sources that they added.

Use vCenter Single Sign-On With Windows Session Authentication

You can use vCenter Single Sign-On with Windows Session Authentication (SSPI). You must join the Platform Services Controller to an Active Directory domain before you can use SSPI.

Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On

An administrator can add identity sources, set the default identity source, and create users and groups in the vsphere.local identity source.

The user and group data is stored in Active Directory, OpenLDAP, or locally to the operating system of the machine where vCenter Single Sign-On is installed. After installation, every instance of vCenter Single Sign-On has the identity source your_domain_name, for example vsphere.local. This identity source is internal to vCenter Single Sign-On.

vCenter Server versions earlier than version 5.1 supported Active Directory and local operating system users as user repositories. As a result, local operating system users were always able to authenticate to the vCenter Server system. vCenter Server version 5.1 and version 5.5 uses vCenter Single Sign-On for authentication. See the vSphere 5.1 documentation for a list of supported identity sources with vCenter Single Sign-On 5.1. vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 supports the following types of user repositories as identity sources, but supports only one default identity source.

Active Directory versions 2003 and later. Shown as Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) in the vSphere Client. vCenter Single Sign-On allows you to specify a single Active

Directory domain as an identity source. The domain can have child domains or be a forest root domain. VMware KB article 2064250 discusses Microsoft Active Directory Trusts supported with vCenter Single Sign-On.

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Active Directory over LDAP. vCenter Single Sign-On supports multiple Active Directory over LDAP identity sources. This identity source type is included for compatibility with the vCenter Single SignOn service included with vSphere 5.1. Shown as Active Directory as an LDAP Server in the vSphere Client.

OpenLDAP versions 2.4 and later. vCenter Single Sign-On supports multiple OpenLDAP identity sources. Shown as OpenLDAP in the vSphere Client.

Local operating system users. Local operating system users are local to the operating system where the vCenter Single Sign-On server is running. The local operating system identity source exists only in basic vCenter Single Sign-On server deployments and is not available in deployments with multiple vCenter Single Sign-On instances. Only one local operating system identity source is allowed. Shown as localos in the vSphere Client.

Note Do not use local operating system users if the Platform Services Controller is on a different

machine than the vCenter Server system. Using local operating system users might make sense in an embedded deployment but is not recommended.

vCenter Single Sign-On system users. Exactly one system identity source is created when you install vCenter Single Sign-On.

Note At any time, only one default domain exists. If a user from a non-default domain logs in, that user

must add the domain name (DOMAIN\user) to authenticate successfully.

Set the Default Domain for vCenter Single Sign-On

When a user logs in to a vCenter Server system from the vSphere Client, the login behavior depends on whether the user is in the domain that is set as the default identity source.

Users who are in the default domain can log in with their user name and password.

Including a domain name prefix, for example, MYDOMAIN\user1

Including the domain, for example, user1@mydomain.com

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

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2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Click Identity Sources, select an identity source, and click Set as Default.

In the domain display, the default domain shows (default) in the Domain column.

Add or Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Source

An identity source can be a native Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) domain or an OpenLDAP directory service. For backward compatibility, Active Directory as an LDAP Server is also available. See Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On.

Immediately after installation, the following default identity sources and users are available:

localos All local operating system users. If you are upgrading, those localos users

who can already authenticate can continue to authenticate. Using the localos identity source does not make sense in environments that use an embedded Platform Services Controller.

vsphere.local Contains the vCenter Single Sign-On internal users.

Prerequisites

If you are adding an Active Directory identity source, the vCenter Server Appliance or the vCenter Server Windows machine must be in the Active Directory domain. See Add a Platform Services Controller

Appliance to an Active Directory Domain.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

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4 Click Identity Sources, and click Add Identity Source.

5 Select the identity source and enter the identity source settings.

Option Description

Active Directory (Integrated Windows

Authentication)

Active Directory over LDAP This option is available for backward compatibility. It requires that you specify the

OpenLDAP Use this option for an OpenLDAP identity source. See Active Directory LDAP

Use this option for native Active Directory implementations. The machine on which the vCenter Single Sign-On service is running must be in an Active Directory domain if you want to use this option.

See Active Directory Identity Source Settings.

domain controller and other information. See Active Directory LDAP Server and

OpenLDAP Server Identity Source Settings.

Server and OpenLDAP Server Identity Source Settings.

Note If the user account is locked or disabled, authentications and group and user searches in the

Active Directory domain fail. The user account must have read-only access over the User and Group OU, and must be able to read user and group attributes. Active Directory provides this access by default. Use a special service user for improved security.

6 If you configured an Active Directory as an LDAP Server or an OpenLDAP identity source, click Test

Connection to ensure that you can connect to the identity source.

7 Click OK.

What to do next

When an identity source is added, all users can be authenticated but have the No access role. A user with vCenter Server Modify.permissions privileges can give users or groups of users privileges. The privileges enable the users or groups to log in to vCenter Server and to view and manage objects. See the vSphere Security documentation.

Active Directory Identity Source Settings

If you select the Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) identity source type, you can use the local machine account as your SPN (Service Principal Name) or specify an SPN explicitly. You can use this option only if the vCenter Single Sign-On server is joined to an Active Directory domain.

Prerequisites for Using an Active Directory Identity Source

You can set up vCenter Single Sign-On to use an Active Directory identity source only if that identity source is available.

For a Windows installation, join the Windows machine to the Active Directory domain.

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For a vCenter Server Appliance, follow the instructions in the vCenter Server Appliance Configuration documentation.

Note Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) always uses the root of the Active Directory

domain forest. To configure your Integrated Windows Authentication identity source with a child domain within your Active Directory forest, see VMware Knowledge Base article 2070433.

Select Use machine account to speed up configuration. If you expect to rename the local machine on which vCenter Single Sign-On runs, specifying an SPN explicitly is preferable.

Note In vSphere 5.5, vCenter Single Sign-On uses the machine account even if you specify the SPN.

See VMware Knowledge Base article 2087978.

Table 2‑2. Add Identity Source Settings

Text Box Description

Domain name FQDN of the domain name, for example, mydomain.com. Do not

provide an IP address. This domain name must be DNSresolvable by the vCenter Server system. If you are using a vCenter Server Appliance, use the information on configuring network settings to update the DNS server settings.

Use machine account Select this option to use the local machine account as the SPN.

When you select this option, you specify only the domain name. Do not select this option if you expect to rename this machine.

Use Service Principal Name (SPN) Select this option if you expect to rename the local machine. You

must specify an SPN, a user who can authenticate with the identity source, and a password for the user.

Service Principal Name (SPN) SPN that helps Kerberos to identify the Active Directory service.

Include the domain in the name, for example, STS/example.com.

The SPN must be unique across the domain. Running setspn - S checks that no duplicate is created. See the Microsoft documentation for information on setspn.

User Principal Name (UPN)

Password

Name and password of a user who can authenticate with this identity source. Use the email address format, for example, jchin@mydomain.com. You can verify the User Principal Name with the Active Directory Service Interfaces Editor (ADSI Edit).

Active Directory LDAP Server and OpenLDAP Server Identity Source Settings

The Active Directory as an LDAP Server identity source is available for backward compatibility. Use the Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) option for a setup that requires less input. The OpenLDAP Server identity source is available for environments that use OpenLDAP.

If you are configuring an OpenLDAP identity source, see VMware Knowledge Base article 2064977 for additional requirements.

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Table 2‑3. Active Directory as an LDAP Server and OpenLDAP Settings

Option Description

Name Name of the identity source.

Base DN for users Base Distinguished Name for users.

Base DN for groups The base Distinguished Name for groups.

Domain name The FQDN of the domain.

Domain alias For Active Directory identity sources, the domain's NetBIOS

name. Add the NetBIOS name of the Active Directory domain as an alias of the identity source if you are using SSPI authentications.

For OpenLDAP identity sources, the domain name in capital letters is added if you do not specify an alias.

Username ID of a user in the domain who has a minimum of read-only

access to Base DN for users and groups.

Password Password of the user who is specified by Username.

Connect to Domain controller to connect to. Can be any domain controller in

the domain, or specific controllers.

Primary Server URL Primary domain controller LDAP server for the domain.

Use the format ldap://hostname:port or ldaps://hostname:port. The port is typically 389 for LDAP connections and 636 for LDAPS connections. For Active Directory multi-domain controller deployments, the port is typically 3268 for LDAP and 3269 for LDAPS.

A certificate that establishes trust for the LDAPS endpoint of the Active Directory server is required when you use ldaps:// in the primary or secondary LDAP URL.

Secondary server URL Address of a secondary domain controller LDAP server that is

used for failover.

SSL certificates If you want to use LDAPS with your Active Directory LDAP

Server or OpenLDAP Server identity source, click Browse to choose a certificate.

Use vCenter Single Sign-On With Windows Session Authentication

You can use vCenter Single Sign-On with Windows Session Authentication (SSPI). You must join the Platform Services Controller to an Active Directory domain before you can use SSPI.

Using SSPI speeds up the login process for the user who is currently logged in to a machine.

Prerequisites

Join the Platform Services Controller appliance or the Windows machine on which Platform Services Controller is running to an Active Directory domain. See Add a Platform Services

Controller Appliance to an Active Directory Domain.

Verify that the domain is set up properly. See VMware Knowledge Base article 2064250.

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If you are using vSphere 6.0 and earlier, verify that the Client Integration Plug-in is installed.

If you are using vSphere 6.5 and later, verify that the Enhanced Authentication Plug-In is installed. See vCenter Server Installation and Setup.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vSphere Client login page.

2 Select the Use Windows session authentication check box.

3 Log in using the Active Directory user name and password.

If the Active Directory domain is the default identity source, log in with your user name, for example jlee.

Otherwise, include the domain name, for example, jlee@example.com.

Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication

vCenter Single Sign-On allows you to authenticate as a user in an identity source that is known to vCenter Single Sign-On, or by using Windows session authentication. You can also authenticate by using a smart card (UPN-based Common Access Card or CAC), or by using an RSA SecurID token.

Two-Factor Authentication Methods

The two-factor authentication methods are often required by government agencies or large enterprises.

Smart card

authentication

RSA SecurID

Authentication

Smart card authentication allows access only to users who attach a physical card to the USB drive of the computer that they log in to. An example is Common Access Card (CAC) authentication.

The administrator can deploy the PKI so that the smart card certificates are the only client certificates that the CA issues. For such deployments, only smart card certificates are presented to the user. The user selects a certificate, and is prompted for a PIN. Only users who have both the physical card and the PIN that matches the certificate can log in.

For RSA SecurID authentication, your environment must include a correctly configured RSA Authentication Manager. If the Platform Services Controller is configured to point to the RSA server, and if RSA SecurID Authentication is enabled, users can log in with their user name and token.

See the two vSphere Blog posts about RSA SecurID setup for details.

Note vCenter Single Sign-On supports only native SecurID. It does not

support RADIUS authentication.

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Specifying a Nondefault Authentication Method

Administrators can set up a nondefault authentication method from the vSphere Client, or by using the sso-config script.

For smart card authentication, you can perform the vCenter Single Sign-On setup from the vSphere Client or by using sso-config. Setup includes enabling smart card authentication and configuring certificate revocation policies.

For RSA SecurID, you use the sso-config script to configure RSA Authentication Manager for the domain, and to enable RSA token authentication. You cannot configure RSA SecurID authentication from the vSphere Client. However, if you enable RSA SecurID, that authentication method appears in the vSphere Client.

Combining Authentication Methods

You can enable or disable each authentication method separately by using sso-config. Leave user name and password authentication enabled initially, while you are testing a two-factor authentication method, and set only one authentication method to enabled after testing.

Smart Card Authentication Login

A smart card is a small plastic card with an embedded integrated circuit chip. Many government agencies and large enterprises use smart cards such as Common Access Card (CAC) to increase the security of their systems and to comply with security regulations. A smart card is used in environments where each machine includes a smart card reader. Smart card hardware drivers that manage the smart card are typically preinstalled.

Users who log in to a vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller system are prompted to authenticate with a smart card and PIN combination, as follows.

1 When the user inserts the smart card into the smart card reader, vCenter Single Sign-On reads the

certificates on the card.

2 vCenter Single Sign-On prompts the user to select a certificate, and then prompts the user for the PIN

for that certificate.

3 vCenter Single Sign-On checks whether the certificate on the smart card is known and whether the

PIN is correct. If revocation checking is turned on, vCenter Single Sign-On also checks whether the certificate is revoked.

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4 If the certificate is known, and is not a revoked certificate, the user is authenticated and can then

perform tasks that the user has permissions for.

Note It usually makes sense to leave user name and password authentication enabled during testing.

After testing is complete, disable user name and password authentication and enable smart card authentication. Subsequently, the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client allow only smart card login. Only users with root or administrator privileges on the machine can reenable user name and password authentication by logging in to thePlatform Services Controller directly.

Conﬁguring and Using Smart Card Authentication

You can set up your environment to require smart card authentication when a user connects to a vCenter Server or associated Platform Services Controller from the either the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

How you set up smart card authentication depends on the version of vSphere that you are using.

vSphere Version Procedure Links

6.0 Update 2

Later versions of vSphere

6.0

6.5 and later 1 Set up the reverse proxy.

1 Set up the Tomcat server.

2 Enable and configure smart card

authentication.

2 Enable and configure smart card

authentication.

vSphere 6.0 documentation center.

Configure the Reverse Proxy to Request Client Certificates

Use the Command Line to Manage Smart Card Authentication

Manage Smart Card Authentication

Conﬁgure the Reverse Proxy to Request Client Certiﬁcates

Before you enable smart card authentication, you have to configure the reverse proxy on the Platform Services Controller system. If your environment uses an embedded Platform Services Controller, you perform this task on the system where both vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller run.

Reverse proxy configuration is required in vSphere 6.5 and later.

Prerequisites

Copy the CA certificates to the Platform Services Controller system.

Procedure

1 Log in to the Platform Services Controller.

OS Description

Appliance Log in to the appliance shell as the root user.

Windows Log in to a Windows command prompt as an Administrator user.

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2 Create a trusted client CA store.

This store will contain the trusted issuing CA's certificates for client certificate. The client here is the browser from which the smart card process prompts the end user for information.

The following example shows how you create a certificate store on the Platform Services Controller appliance.

For a single certificate:

cd /usr/lib/vmware-sso/

openssl x509 -inform PEM -in xyzCompanySmartCardSigningCA.cer > /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-

sts/conf/clienttrustCA.pem

For multiple certificates:

cd /usr/lib/vmware-sso/

openssl x509 -inform PEM -in xyzCompanySmartCardSigningCA.cer >> /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-

sts/conf/clienttrustCA.pem

Note On Platform Services Controller on Windows, use

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\runtime\VMwareSTSService\conf\ and change the command to use backward slash.

3 Make a backup of the config.xml file that includes the reverse proxy definition, and open

config.xml in an editor.

OS Description

Appliance

Windows

/etc/vmware-rhttpproxy/config.xml

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vmware-

rhttpproxy\config.xml

4 Make the following changes and save the file.

<http>

<clientCAListFile>/usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/conf/clienttrustCA.pem</clientCAListFile>

</http>

The config.xml file includes some of these elements. Uncomment, update, or add the elements as needed.

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5 Restart the service.

OS Description

Appliance

Windows Restart the operating system, or restart the VMware HTTP Reverse Proxy by

/usr/lib/vmware-vmon/vmon-cli --restart rhttpproxy

following these steps:

a Open an elevated command prompt.

b Run the following commands:

cd C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin service-control --stop vmware-rhttpproxy service-control --start vmware-rhttpproxy

Use the Command Line to Manage Smart Card Authentication

You can use the sso-config utility to manage smart card authentication from the command line. The utility supports all smart card configuration tasks.

You can find the sso-config script at the following locations:

Windows

Linux

C:\Program Files\VMware\VCenter server\VMware Identity Services\sso-config.bat

/opt/vmware/bin/sso-config.sh

Configuration of supported authentication types and revocation settings is stored in VMware Directory Service and replicated across all Platform Services Controller instances in a vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

If user name and password authentication are disabled, and if problems occur with smart card authentication, users cannot log in. In that case, a root or administrator user can turn on user name and password authentication from the Platform Services Controller command line. The following command enables user name and password authentication.

OS Command

Windows

Linux

sso-config.bat -set_authn_policy

-pwdAuthn true -t <tenant_name>

If you use the default tenant, use vsphere.local as the tenant name.

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -pwdAuthn true

-t <tenant_name>

If you use the default tenant, use vsphere.local as the tenant name.

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If you use OCSP for revocation check, you can rely on the default OCSP specified in the smart card certificate AIA extension. You can also override the default and configure one or more alternative OCSP responders. For example, you can set up OCSP responders that are local to the vCenter Single Sign-On site to process the revocation check request.

Note If your certificate does not have OCSP defined, enable CRL (certificate revocation list) instead.

Prerequisites

Verify that your environment uses Platform Services Controller version 6.5 or later, and that you use vCenter Server version 6.0 or later. Platform Services Controller version 6.0 Update 2 supports smart card authentication, but the setup procedure is different.

Verify that an enterprise Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is set up in your environment, and that certificates meet the following requirements:

A User Principal Name (UPN) must correspond to an Active Directory account in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension.

The certificate must specify Client Authentication in the Application Policy or Enhanced Key Usage field or the browser does not show the certificate.

Verify that the Platform Services Controller certificate is trusted by the end user's workstation. Otherwise, the browser does not attempt authentication.

Add an Active Directory identity source to vCenter Single Sign-On.

Assign the vCenter Server Administrator role to one or more users in the Active Directory identity source. Those users can then perform management tasks because they can authenticate and they have vCenter Server administrator privileges.

Note The administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, administrator@vsphere.local by

default, cannot perform smart card authentication.

Set up the reverse proxy and restart the physical or virtual machine.

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Procedure

1 Obtain the certificates and copy them to a folder that the sso-config utility can see.

Option Description

Windows Log in to the Platform Services Controller Windows installation and use WinSCP

or a similar utility to copy the files.

Appliance a Log in to the appliance console, either directly or by using SSH.

b Enable the appliance shell, as follows.

shell chsh -s "/bin/bash" root

c Use WinSCP or a similar utility to copy the certificates to

the /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/conf on the Platform Services Controller.

d Optionally disable the appliance shell, as follows.

chsh -s "/bin/appliancesh" root

2 To enable smart cart authentication for VMware Directory Service (vmdir), run the following

command.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -set_authn_policy -certAuthn true -cacerts

first_trusted_cert.cer,second_trusted_cert.cer -t tenant

For example:

sso-config.[bat|sh] -set_authn_policy -certAuthn true -cacerts MySmartCA1.cer,MySmartCA2.cer -t

vsphere.local

Separate multiple certificates with commas, but do not put spaces after the comma.

3 To disable all other authentication methods, run the following commands.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -set_authn_policy -pwdAuthn false -t vsphere.local

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -winAuthn false -t vsphere.local

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -securIDAuthn false -t vsphere.local

4 (Optional) To set a certificate policies white list, run the following command.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -set_authn_policy -certPolicies policies

To specify multiple policies, separate them with a command, for example:

sso-config.bat -set_authn_policy -certPolicies 2.16.840.1.101.2.1.11.9,2.16.840.1.101.2.1.11.19

This white list specifies object IDs of policies that are allowed in the certificate's certificate policy extension. An X509 certificate can have a Certificate Policy extension.

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5 (Optional) Turn on and configure revocation checking using OCSP.

a Turn on revocation checking using OCSP.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -set_authn_policy -t tenantName -useOcsp true

b If the OCSP responder link is not provided by the AIA extension of the certificates, provide the

overriding OCSP responder URL and OCSP authority certificate.

The alternative OCSP is configured for each vCenter Single Sign-On site. You can specify more than one alternative OCSP responder for your vCenter Single Sign-On site to allow for failover.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -t tenant -add_alt_ocsp [-siteID yourPSCClusterID] -ocspUrl

http://ocsp.xyz.com/ -ocspSigningCert yourOcspSigningCA.cer

Note The configuration is applied to the current vCenter Single Sign-On site by default. Specify

the siteID parameter only if you configure alternative OCSP for other vCenter Single Sign-On sites.

Consider the following example.

.sso-config.[bat|sh] -t vsphere.local -add_alt_ocsp -ocspUrl

http://failover.ocsp.nsn0.rcvs.nit.disa.mil/ -

ocspSigningCert ./DOD_JITC_EMAIL_CA-29__0x01A5__DOD_JITC_ROOT_CA_2.cer

Adding alternative OCSP responder for tenant :vsphere.local

OCSP reponder is added successfully!

[

site:: 78564172-2508-4b3a-b903-23de29a2c342

[

OCSP url:: http://ocsp.nsn0.rcvs.nit.disa.mil/

OCSP signing CA cert: binary value]

]

[

OCSP url:: http://failover.ocsp.nsn0.rcvs.nit.disa.mil/

OCSP signing CA cert: binary value]

]

c To display the current alternative OCSP responder settings, run this command.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -t tenantName -get_alt_ocsp]

d To remove the current alternative OCSP responder settings, run this command.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -t tenantName -delete_alt_ocsp [-allSite] [-siteID

pscSiteID_for_the_configuration]

6 (Optional) To list configuration information, run the following command.

sso-config.[bat|sh] -get_authn_policy -t tenantName

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Manage Smart Card Authentication

You can enable and disable smart card authentication, customize the login banner, and set up the revocation policy from the vSphere Client.

If smart card authentication is enabled and other authentication methods are disabled, users are then required to log in using smart card authentication.

OS Command

Windows

Linux

sso-config.bat -set_authn_policy

-pwdAuthn true -t <tenant_name>

If you use the default tenant, use vsphere.local as the tenant name.

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -pwdAuthn true

-t <tenant_name>

If you use the default tenant, use vsphere.local as the tenant name.

Prerequisites

Verify that an enterprise Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is set up in your environment, and that certificates meet the following requirements:

A User Principal Name (UPN) must correspond to an Active Directory account in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension.

The certificate must specify Client Authentication in the Application Policy or Enhanced Key Usage field or the browser does not show the certificate.

Verify that the Platform Services Controller certificate is trusted by the end user's workstation. Otherwise, the browser does not attempt authentication.

Add an Active Directory identity source to vCenter Single Sign-On.

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Note The administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, administrator@vsphere.local by

default, cannot perform smart card authentication.

Set up the reverse proxy and restart the physical or virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Obtain the certificates and copy them to a folder that the sso-config utility can see.

Option Description

Windows Log in to the Platform Services Controller Windows installation and use WinSCP

or a similar utility to copy the files.

Appliance a Log in to the appliance console, either directly or by using SSH.

b Enable the appliance shell, as follows.

shell chsh -s "/bin/bash" root csh -s "bin/appliance/sh" root

c Use WinSCP or a similar utility to copy the certificates to

the /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/conf on the Platform Services Controller.

d Optionally disable the appliance shell, as follows.

chsh -s "/bin/appliancesh" root

2 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

3 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

4 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

5 Under Smart Card Authentication, click Edit.

6 Select or deselect authentication methods, and click SAVE.

You can choose smart card authentication by itself, or both smart card authentication and password and Windows session authentication.

You cannot enable or disable RSA SecurID authentication from this Web interface. However, if RSA SecurID has been enabled from the command line, the status appears in the Web interface.

The Trusted CA certificates appears.

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7 Under the Trusted CA certificates tab, click Add, and click Browse.

8 Select all certificates from trusted CAs, and click ADD.

What to do next

Your environment might require enhanced OCSP configuration.

If your OCSP response is issued by a different CA than the signing CA of the smart card, provide the OCSP signing CA certificate.

You can configure one or more local OCSP responders for each Platform Services Controller site in a multi-site deployment. You can configure these alternative OCSP responders using the CLI. See Use

the Command Line to Manage Smart Card Authentication.

Set Revocation Policies for Smart Card Authentication

You can customize certificate revocation checking, and you can specify where vCenter Single Sign-On looks for information about revoked certificates.

You can customize the behavior by using the vSphere Client or by using the sso-config script. The settings that you select depend in part on what the CA supports.

If revocation checking is disabled, vCenter Single Sign-On ignores any CRL or OCSP settings. vCenter Single Sign-On does not perform checks on any certificates.

If revocation checking is enabled, the recommended setup depends on the PKI setup.

OCSP only If the issuing CA supports an OCSP responder, enable OCSP and

disable CRL as failover for OCSP.

CRL only If the issuing CA does not support OSCP, enable CRL checking and

disable OSCP checking.

Both OSCP and CRL If the issuing CA supports both an OCSP responder and a CRL, vCenter

Single Sign-On checks the OCSP responder first. If the responder returns an unknown status or is not available, vCenter Single Sign-On checks the CRL. For this case, enable both OCSP checking and CRL checking, and enable CRL as failover for OCSP.

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If revocation checking is enabled, advanced users can specify the following additional settings.

OSCP URL By default, vCenter Single Sign-On checks the location of the OCSP

responder that is defined in the certificate being validated. If the Authority Information Access extension is absent from the certificate or if you want to override it, you can explicitly specify a location.

Use CRL from

certificate

By default, vCenter Single Sign-On checks the location of the CRL that is defined in the certificate being validated. Disable this option if the CRL Distribution Point extension is absent from the certificate or if you want to override the default.

CRL location Use this property if you disable Use CRL from certificate and you want

to specify a location (file or HTTP URL) where the CRL is located.

You can further limit which certificates vCenter Single Sign-On accepts by adding a certificate policy.

Prerequisites

Verify that an enterprise Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is set up in your environment, and that certificates meet the following requirements:

A User Principal Name (UPN) must correspond to an Active Directory account in the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) extension.

The certificate must specify Client Authentication in the Application Policy or Enhanced Key Usage field or the browser does not show the certificate.

Verify that the Platform Services Controller certificate is trusted by the end user's workstation. Otherwise, the browser does not attempt authentication.

Add an Active Directory identity source to vCenter Single Sign-On.

Note The administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, administrator@vsphere.local by

default, cannot perform smart card authentication.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

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3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Click Smart Card Authentication.

5 Click Certificate revocation and click Edit to enable or disable revocation checking.

6 If certificate policies are in effect in your environment, you can add a policy in the Certificate policies

pane.

Set Up RSA SecurID Authentication

You can set up your environment to require that users log in with an RSA SecurID token. SecurID setup is supported only from the command line.

See the two vSphere Blog posts about RSA SecurID setup for details.

Note RSA Authentication Manager requires that the user ID is a unique identifier that uses 1 to 255

ASCII characters. The characters ampersand (&), percent (%), greater than (>), less than (<), and single quote (`) are not allowed.

Prerequisites

Verify that your environment has a correctly configured RSA Authentication Manager and that users have RSA tokens. RSA Authentication Manager version 8.0 or later is required.

Verify that the identity source that RSA Manager uses has been added to vCenter Single Sign-On. See Add or Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Source.

Verify that the RSA Authentication Manager system can resolve the Platform Services Controller host name, and that the Platform Services Controller system can resolve the RSA Authentication Manager host name.

Export the sdconf.rec file from the RSA Manager by selecting Access > Authentication Agents > Generate configuration file. Decompress the resulting AM_Config.zip file to find the sdconf.rec

file.

Copy the sdconf.rec file to the Platform Services Controller node.

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Procedure

1 Change to the directory where the sso-config script is located.

Option Description

Windows

Appliance

C:\Program Files\VMware\VCenter server\VMware Identity Services

/opt/vmware/bin

2 To enable RSA SecurID authentication, run the following command.

sso-config.[sh|bat] -t tenantName -set_authn_policy –securIDAuthn true

tenantName is the name of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, vsphere.local by default.

3 (Optional) To disable other authentication methods, run the following command.

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -pwdAuthn false -winAuthn false -certAuthn false -t vsphere.local

4 To configure the environment so that the tenant at the current site uses the RSA site, run the following

command.

sso-config.[sh|bat] -set_rsa_site [-t tenantName] [-siteID Location] [-agentName Name] [-

sdConfFile Path]

For example:

sso-config.sh -set_rsa_site -agentName SSO_RSA_AUTHSDK_AGENT -sdConfFile /tmp/sdconf.rec

You can specify the following options.

Option Description

siteID Optional Platform Services Controller site ID. Platform Services Controller

supports one RSA Authentication Manager instance or cluster per site. If you do not explicitly specify this option, the RSA configuration is for the current Platform Services Controller site. Use this option only if you are adding a different site.

agentName Defined in RSA Authentication Manager.

sdConfFile Copy of the sdconf.rec file that was downloaded from RSA Manager and

includes configuration information for the RSA Manager, such as the IP address.

5 (Optional) To change the tenant configuration to nondefault values, run the following command.

sso-config.[sh|bat] -set_rsa_config [-t tenantName] [-logLevel Level] [-logFileSize Size] [-

maxLogFileCount Count] [-connTimeOut Seconds] [-readTimeOut Seconds] [-encAlgList Alg1,Alg2,...]

The default is usually appropriate, for example:

sso-config.sh -set_rsa_config -t vsphere.local -logLevel DEBUG

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6 (Optional) If your identity source is not using the User Principal Name as the user ID, set up the

identity source userID attribute.

The userID attribute determines which LDAP attribute is used as the RSA userID.

sso-config.[sh|bat] -set_rsa_userid_attr_map [-t tenantName] [-idsName Name] [-ldapAttr AttrName]

[-siteID Location]

For example:

sso-config.sh -set_rsa_userid_attr_map -t vsphere.local -idsName ssolabs.com -ldapAttr

userPrincipalName

7 To display the current settings, run the following command.

sso-config.sh -t tenantName -get_rsa_config

If user name and password authentication is disabled and RSA authentication is enabled, users must log in with their user name and RSA token. User name and password login is no longer possible.

Note Use the user name format userID@domainName or userID@domain_upn_suffix.

Manage the Login Message

You can include a login message with your environment. You can enable and disable the login message, and you can require that users click an explicit consent check box.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Click the Login Message tab.

5 Click Edit and configure the login message.

Option Description

Show login message Toggle on Show login message to enable the login message. You cannot make

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Option Description

Consent checkbox Toggle on Consent checkbox to require that the user clicks a check box before

logging in. You can also display a message without a check box.

Details of login message Message that the user sees when clicking the login message, for example, the

text of the terms and conditions. If you use explicit consent, the message is required.

6 Click Save.

Using vCenter Single Sign-On as the Identity Provider for Another Service Provider

The vSphere Client is automatically registered as trusted SAML 2.0 Service Provider (SP) to vCenter Single Sign-On. You can add other trusted service providers to an identity federation where vCenter Single Sign-On acting as the SAML Identity Provider (IDP). The service providers must conform to the SAML 2.0 protocol. After the federation is set up, the service provider grants access to a user if that user can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.

Note vCenter Single Sign-On can be the IDP to other SPs.vCenter Single Sign-On cannot be an SP that

uses another IDP.

A registered SAML service provider can grant access to a user that already has a live session, that is, a user that is logged in to the identity provider. For example, vRealize Automation 7.0 and later supports vCenter Single Sign-On as an identity provider. You can set up a federation from vCenter Single Sign-On and from vRealize Automation. After that, vCenter Single Sign-On can perform the authentication when you log in to vRealize Automation.

To join a SAML service provider to the identity federation, you have to set up trust between the SP and the IDP by exchanging SAML metadata between them.

You have to perform integration tasks for both vCenter Single Sign-On and the service that is using vCenter Single Sign-On.

1 Export IDP metadata to a file, then import it to the SP.

2 Export SP metadata and import it into the IDP.

You can use the vSphere Client interface to vCenter Single Sign-On to export the IDP metadata, and to import the metadate from the SP. If you are using vRealize Automation as the SP, see the vRealize Automation documentation for details on exporting the SP metadata and importing the IDP metadata.

Note The service must fully support the SAML 2.0 standard or integration does not work.

Join a SAML Service Provider to the Identity Federation

You add a SAML service provider to vCenter Single Sign-On, and add vCenter Single Sign-On as the identity provider to that service. Going forward, when users log in to the service provider, the service provider authenticates those users with vCenter Single Sign-On.

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Prerequisites

The target service must fully support the SAML 2.0 standard and the SP metadata must have the SPSSODescriptor element.

If the metadata do not follow the SAML 2.0 metadata schema precisely, you might have to edit the metadata before you import it. For example, if you are using an Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) SAML service provider, you have to edit the metadata before you can import them. Remove the following non-standard elements:

fed:ApplicationServiceType

fed:SecurityTokenServiceType

Procedure

1 Export the metadata from the service provider to a file.

2 Log in with the vSphere Web Client to the vCenter Server connected to the

Platform Services Controller.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Import the SP metadata into vCenter Single Sign-On.

a Select the SAML Service Providers tab.

b In the Metadata from your SAML service provider dialog box, import the metadata by pasting

the XML string or by importing a file.

5 Export the vCenter Single Sign-On IDP metadata.

a In the Metadata for your SAML service provider text box, click Download.

b Specify a file location.

6 Log in to the SAML SP, for example VMware vRealize Automation 7.0, and follow the SP instructions

to add the vCenter Single Sign-On metadata to that service provider.

See the vRealize Automation documentation for details on importing the metadata into that product.

Security Token Service STS

The vCenter Single Sign-On Security Token Service (STS) is a Web service that issues, validates, and renews security tokens.

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Users present their primary credentials to the STS interface to acquire SAML tokens. The primary credential depends on the type of user.

User User name and password available in a vCenter Single Sign-On identity

source.

Application user Valid certificate.

STS authenticates the user based on the primary credentials, and constructs a SAML token that contains user attributes. STS signs the SAML token with its STS signing certificate, and assigns the token to the user. By default, the STS signing certificate is generated by VMCA. You can replace the default STS signing certificate from the vSphere Web Client. Do not replace the STS signing certificate unless your company's security policy requires replacing all certificates.

After a user has a SAML token, the SAML token is sent as part of that user's HTTP requests, possibly through various proxies. Only the intended recipient (service provider) can use the information in the SAML token.

Refresh the Security Token Service Certiﬁcate

The vCenter Single Sign-On server includes a Security Token Service (STS). The Security Token Service is a Web service that issues, validates, and renews security tokens. You can manually refresh the existing Security Token Service certificate from the vSphere Web Client when the certificate expires or changes.

To acquire a SAML token, a user presents the primary credentials to the Secure Token Server (STS). The primary credentials depend on the type of user:

Solution user Valid certificate

Other users User name and password available in a vCenter Single Sign-On identity

source.

The STS authenticates the user using the primary credentials, and constructs a SAML token that contains user attributes. The STS service signs the SAML token with its STS signing certificate, and then assigns the token to a user. By default, the STS signing certificate is generated by VMCA.

You can replace the existing STS signing certificate vSphere Web Client if your company policy requires it, or if you want to update an expired certificate.

Caution Do not replace the file in the filesystem. If you do, errors that are unexpected and difficult to

debug result.

Note After you replace the certificate, you must restart the node to restart both the vSphere Web Client

service and the STS service.

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Prerequisites

Copy the certificate that you just added to the java keystore from the Platform Services Controller to your local workstation.

Platform Services

Controller appliance

certificate_location/keys/root-trust.jks For

example: /keys/root-trust.jks

For example:

/root/newsts/keys/root-trust.jks

Windows installation

certificate_location\root-trust.jks

For example:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\root-

trust.jks

Procedure

1 Log in to the vSphere Web Client as administrator@vsphere.local or as another user with vCenter

Single Sign-On administrator privileges.

Users with vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges are in the Administrators group in the local vCenter Single Sign-On domain, vsphere.local by default.

2 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

3 Select the Certificates tab, then the STS Signing subtab, and click the Add STS Signing

Certificate icon.

4 Add the certificate.

a Click Browse to browse to the key store JKS file that contains the new certificate and click Open.

b Type the password when prompted.

c Click the top of the STS alias chain and click OK.

d Type the password again when prompted

5 Click OK.

6 Restart the Platform Services Controller node to start both the STS service and the

vSphere Web Client.

Before the restart, authentication does not work correctly so the restart is essential.

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Generate a New STS Signing Certiﬁcate on the Appliance

Because the vCenter Single Sign-On Security Token Service (STS) signing certificate is an internal VMware certificate, do not replace it unless your company mandates the replacement of internal certificates. If you want to replace the default STS signing certificate, you must generate a new certificate and add it to the Java key store. This procedure explains the steps on an embedded deployment appliance or an external Platform Services Controller appliance.

Note This certificate is valid for ten years and is not an external-facing certificate. Do not replace this

certificate unless your company's security policy requires it.

See Generate a New STS Signing Certificate on a vCenter Windows Installation if you are running a Platform Services Controller Windows installation.

Procedure

1 Create a top-level directory to hold the new certificate and verify the location of the directory.

mkdir newsts

cd newsts

pwd

#resulting output: /root/newst

2 Copy the certool.cfg file into the new directory.

cp /usr/lib/vmware-vmca/share/config/certool.cfg /root/newsts

3 Open your copy of the certool.cfg file and edit it to use the local Platform Services Controller IP

address and hostname.

The country is required and has to be two characters, as shown in the following example.

# Template file for a CSR request

# Country is needed and has to be 2 characters

Country = US

Name = STS

Organization = ExampleInc

OrgUnit = ExampleInc Dev

State = Indiana

Locality = Indianapolis

IPAddress = 10.0.1.32

Email = chen@exampleinc.com

Hostname = homecenter.exampleinc.local

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4 Generate the key.

/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certool --server localhost --genkey --privkey=/root/newsts/sts.key --

pubkey=/root/newsts/sts.pub

5 Generate the certificate

/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certool --gencert --cert=/root/newsts/newsts.cer --

privkey=/root/newsts/sts.key --config=/root/newsts/certool.cfg

6 Convert the certificate to PK12 format.

openssl pkcs12 -export -in /root/newsts/newsts.cer -inkey /root/newsts/sts.key -

certfile /etc/vmware-sso/keys/ssoserverRoot.crt -name "newstssigning" -passout pass:changeme -out

newsts.p12

7 Add the certificate to the Java key store (JKS).

/usr/java/jre-vmware/bin/keytool -v -importkeystore -srckeystore newsts.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -

srcstorepass changeme -srcalias newstssigning -destkeystore root-trust.jks -deststoretype JKS -

deststorepass testpassword -destkeypass testpassword

/usr/java/jre-vmware/bin/keytool -v -importcert -keystore root-trust.jks -deststoretype JKS -

storepass testpassword -keypass testpassword -file /etc/vmware-sso/keys/ssoserverRoot.crt -alias

root-ca

8 When prompted, type Yes to accept the certificate into the keystore.

What to do next

You can now import the new certificate. See Refresh the Security Token Service Certificate.

Generate a New STS Signing Certiﬁcate on a vCenter Windows Installation

Because the vCenter Single Sign-On Security Token Service (STS) signing certificate is an internal VMware certificate, do not replace it unless your company mandates the replacement of internal certificates. If you want to replace the default STS signing certificate, you must first generate a new certificate and add it to the Java key store. This procedure explains the steps on a Windows installation.

Note This certificate is valid for ten years and is not an external-facing certificate. Do not replace this

certificate unless your company's security policy requires it.

See Generate a New STS Signing Certificate on the Appliance if you are using a virtual appliance.

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Procedure

1 Create a new directory to hold the new certificate.

cd C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\sso\keys\

mkdir newsts

cd newsts

2 Make a copy of the certool.cfg file and place it in the new directory.

copy "C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certool.cfg" .

3 Open your copy of the certool.cfg file and edit it to use the local Platform Services Controller IP

address and hostname.

The country is required and has to be two characters. The following sample illustrates this.

# Template file for a CSR request

# Country is needed and has to be 2 characters

Country = US

Name = STS

Organization = ExampleInc

OrgUnit = ExampleInc Dev

State = Indiana

Locality = Indianapolis

IPAddress = 10.0.1.32

Email = chen@exampleinc.com

Hostname = homecenter.exampleinc.local

4 Generate the key.

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certool.exe" --server localhost --genkey --

privkey=sts.key --pubkey=sts.pub

5 Generate the certificate

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certool.exe" --gencert --cert=newsts.cer --

privkey=sts.key --config=certool.cfg

6 Convert the certificate to PK12 format.

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\openSSL\openssl.exe" pkcs12 -export -in newsts.cer -inkey

sts.key -certfile ..\ssoserverRoot.crt -name "newstssigning" -passout pass:changeme -out newsts.p12

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7 Add the certificate to the Java key store (JKS).

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\keytool.exe" -v -importkeystore -srckeystore

newsts.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -srcstorepass changeme -srcalias newstssigning -destkeystore root-

trust.jks -deststoretype JKS -deststorepass testpassword -destkeypass testpassword

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\keytool.exe" -v -importcert -keystore root-

trust.jks -deststoretype JKS -storepass testpassword -keypass testpassword -

file ..\ssoserverRoot.crt -alias root-ca

What to do next

You can now import the new certificate. See Refresh the Security Token Service Certificate.

Determine the Expiration Date of an LDAPS SSL Certiﬁcate

If you select an LDAP identity source, and you decide to use LDAPS, you can upload an SSL certificate for the LDAP traffic. SSL certificates expire after a predefined lifespan. Knowing when a certificate expires lets you replace or renew the certificate before the expiration date.

You see certificate expiration information only if you use an Active Directory LDAP Server or OpenLDAP Server and specify an ldaps:// URL for the server. The Identity Sources TrustStore tab remains empty for other types of identity sources or for ldap:// traffic.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Certificate Management UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Certificates, click Certificate Management.

4 Enter your vCenter Server credentials.

Your certificates appear.

5 View a certificate's details and verify the expiration date in the Valid until field.

You might see a warning at the top of the tab which indicates that a certificate is about to expire.

Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Policies

vCenter Single Sign-On policies enforce the security rules in your environment. You can view and edit the default vCenter Single Sign-On password policy, lockout policy, and token policy.

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Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Password Policy

The vCenter Single Sign-On password policy determines the password format and password expiration. Password policy applies only to users in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain (vsphere.local or vmc.local).

By default, vCenter Single Sign-On passwords expire after 90 days. The vSphere Web Client reminds you when your password is about to expire.

Note The password policy applies only to user accounts, not to system accounts such as

administrator@vsphere.local.

See Change Your vCenter Single Sign-On Password.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Click Policies, select Password Policy, and click Edit.

5 Edit the password policy.

Option Description

Description Password policy description.

Maximum lifetime Maximum number of days that a password is valid before the user must change it.

Restrict reuse Number of previous passwords that cannot be reused. For example, if you type 6,

the user cannot reuse any of the last six passwords.

Maximum length Maximum number of characters that are allowed in the password.

Minimum length Minimum number of characters required in the password. The minimum length

must be no less than the combined minimum of alphabetic, numeric, and special character requirements.

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Option Description

Character requirements Minimum number of different character types that are required in the password.

You can specify the number of each type of character, as follows:

Special: & # %

Alphabetic: A b c D

Uppercase: A B C

Lowercase: a b c

Numeric: 1 2 3

The minimum number of alphabetic characters must be no less than the combined uppercase and lowercase characters.

Non-ASCII characters are supported in passwords. In earlier versions of vCenter Single Sign-On, limitations on supported characters exist.

Identical adjacent characters Maximum number of identical adjacent characters that are allowed in the

password. For example, if you enter 1, the following password is not allowed: p@ $$word.

The number must be greater than 0.

6 Click OK.

Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Lockout Policy

If a user attempts to log in with incorrect credentials, a vCenter Single Sign-On lockout policy specifies when the user's vCenter Single Sign-On account is locked. Administrators can edit the lockout policy.

If a user logs in to vsphere.local multiple times with the wrong password, the user is locked out. The lockout policy allows administrators to specify the maximum number of failed login attempts, and set the time interval between failures. The policy also specifies how much time must elapse before the account is automatically unlocked.

Note The lockout policy applies only to user accounts, not to system accounts such as

administrator@vsphere.local.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Select Lockout Policy and click Edit.

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5 Edit the parameters.

Option Description

Description Optional description of the lockout policy.

Maximum number of failed login

attempts

Time interval between failures Time period in which failed login attempts must occur to trigger a lockout.

Unlock time Amount of time that the account remains locked. If you enter 0, the administrator

Maximum number of failed login attempts that are allowed before the account is locked.

must unlock the account explicitly.

6 Click OK.

Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Token Policy

The vCenter Single Sign-On token policy specifies token properties such as the clock tolerance and renewal count. You can edit the token policy to ensure that the token specification conforms to security standards in your corporation.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Configuration.

4 Select Token Policy and click Edit.

5 Edit the token policy configuration parameters.

Option Description

Clock Tolerance Time difference, in milliseconds, that vCenter Single Sign-On tolerates between a

client clock and the domain controller clock. If the time difference is greater than the specified value, vCenter Single Sign-On declares the token invalid.

Maximum Token Renewal Count Maximum number of times that a token can be renewed. After the maximum

number of renewal attempts, a new security token is required.

Maximum Token Delegation Count Holder-of-key tokens can be delegated to services in the vSphere environment. A

service that uses a delegated token performs the service on behalf of the principal that provided the token. A token request specifies a DelegateTo identity. The DelegateTo value can either be a solution token or a reference to a solution token. This value specifies how many times a single holder-of-key token can be delegated.

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Option Description

Maximum Bearer Token Lifetime Bearer tokens provide authentication based only on possession of the token.

Bearer tokens are intended for short-term, single-operation use. A bearer token does not verify the identity of the user or entity that is sending the request. This value specifies the lifetime value of a bearer token before the token has to be reissued.

Maximum Holder-of-Key Token

Lifetime

Holder-of-key tokens provide authentication based on security artifacts that are embedded in the token. Holder-of-key tokens can be used for delegation. A client can obtain a holder-of-key token and delegate that token to another entity. The token contains the claims to identify the originator and the delegate. In the vSphere environment, a vCenter Server system obtains delegated tokens on a user's behalf and uses those tokens to perform operations.

This value determines the lifetime of a holder-of-key token before the token is marked invalid.

6 Click OK.

Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Users and Groups

A vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user can manage users and groups in the vsphere.local domain from the vSphere Web Client.

The vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user can perform the following tasks.

Add vCenter Single Sign-On Users

Users listed on the Users tab in the vSphere Client are internal to vCenter Single Sign-On and belong to the vsphere.local domain. You add users to that domain from one of the vCenter Single Sign-On management interfaces.

Disable and Enable vCenter Single Sign-On Users

When a vCenter Single Sign-On user account is disabled, the user cannot log in to the vCenter Single Sign-On server until an administrator enables the account. You can disable and enable accounts from one of the vCenter Single Sign-On management interfaces.

Delete a vCenter Single Sign-On User

You can delete users that are in the vsphere.local domain from a vCenter Single Sign-On management interface. You cannot delete local operating system users or users in another domain from a vCenter Single Sign-On management interface.

Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On User

You can change the password or other details of a vCenter Single Sign-On user from a vCenter Single Sign-On management interface. You cannot rename users in the vsphere.local domain. That means you cannot rename administrator@vsphere.local.

Add a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

The vCenter Single Sign-On Groups tab shows groups in the local domain, vsphere.local by default. You add groups if you need a container for group members (principals).

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Add Members to a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

Members of a vCenter Single Sign-On group can be users or other groups from one or more identity sources. You can add new members from the vSphere Web Client.

Remove Members from a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

You can remove members from a vCenter Single Sign-On group by using the vSphere Client. When you remove a member (user or group) from a group, you do not delete the member from the system.

Delete vCenter Single Sign-On Solution Users

vCenter Single Sign-On displays solution users. A solution user is a collection of services. Several vCenter Server solution users are predefined and authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On as part of installation. In troubleshooting situations, for example, if an uninstall did not complete cleanly, you can delete individual solution users from the vSphere Web Client.

Change Your vCenter Single Sign-On Password

Users in the local domain, vsphere.local by default, can change their vCenter Single Sign-On passwords from a Web interface. Users in other domains change their passwords following the rules for that domain.

Add vCenter Single Sign-On Users

You can select other domains and view information about the users in those domains, but you cannot add users to other domains from a vCenter Single Sign-On management interface.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 If vsphere.local is not the currently selected domain, select it from the drop-down menu.

You cannot add users to other domains.

5 On the Users tab, click Add User.

6 Type a user name and password for the new user.

You cannot change the user name after you create a user. The password must meet the password policy requirements for the system.

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7 (Optional) Type the first name and last name of the new user.

8 (Optional) Enter an email address and description for the user.

9 Click OK.

When you add a user, that user initially has no privileges to perform management operations.

What to do next

Add the user to a group in the vsphere.local domain, for example, to the group of users who can administer VMCA (CAAdmins) or to the group of users who can administer vCenter Single Sign-On (Administrators). See Add Members to a vCenter Single Sign-On Group.

Disable and Enable vCenter Single Sign-On Users

Disabled user accounts remain available in the vCenter Single Sign-On system, but the user cannot log in or perform operations on the server. Users with administrator privileges can disable and enable accounts from the vCenter Users and Groups page.

Prerequisites

You must be a member of the vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group to disable and enable vCenter Single Sign-On users.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Select a user name, click the vertical ellipsis icon, and click Disable.

5 Click OK.

6 To enable the user again, click the vertical ellipsis icon, click Enable, and click OK.

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Delete a vCenter Single Sign-On User

Caution If you delete the administrator user in the vsphere.local domain, you can no longer log in to

vCenter Single Sign-On. Reinstall vCenter Server and its components.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Select Users, and select the vsphere.local domain from the drop-down menu.

5 In the list of users, select the user that you want to delete and click the vertical ellipsis icon.

6 Click Delete.

Proceed with caution. You cannot undo this action.

Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On User

You can create additional users with the same privileges as administrator@vsphere.local.

vCenter Single Sign-On users are stored in the vCenter Single Sign-On vsphere.local domain.

You can review the vCenter Single Sign-On password policies from the vSphere Client. Log in as administrator@vsphere.local and from the Administration menu, select Configuration > Policies > Password Policy.

See also Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Password Policy.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

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2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Click Users.

5 Click the vertical ellipsis icon and select Edit.

6 Edit the user attributes.

You cannot change the user name of the user.

The password must meet the password policy requirements for the system.

7 Click OK.

Add a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

The vCenter Single Sign-On Groups tab shows groups in the local domain, vsphere.local by default. You add groups if you need a container for group members (principals).

You cannot add groups to other domains, for example, the Active Directory domain, from the vCenter Single Sign-On Groups tab.

If you do not add an identity source to vCenter Single Sign-On, creating groups and adding users can help you organize the local domain.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Select Groups, and click Add Group.

5 Enter a name and description for the group.

You cannot change the group name after you create the group.

6 Click OK.

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What to do next

Add members to the group.

Add Members to a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

Members of a vCenter Single Sign-On group can be users or other groups from one or more identity sources. You can add new members from the vSphere Web Client.

See VMware Knowledge Base article 2095342 for background information.

Groups listed on the Groups tab in the Web interface are part of the vsphere.local domain. See Groups in

the vCenter Single Sign-On Domain.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Click Groups and click the group (for example, Administrators).

5 In the Group Members area, click Add Members.

6 Select the identity source that contains the member to add to the group.

7 (Optional) Enter a search term and click Search.

8 Select the member and click Add.

You can add more than one member.

9 Click OK.

Remove Members from a vCenter Single Sign-On Group

You can remove members from a vCenter Single Sign-On group by using the vSphere Client. When you remove a member (user or group) from a group, you do not delete the member from the system.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

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3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign On, click Users and Groups.

4 Select Groups and click a group.

5 In the list of group members, select the user or group that you want to remove and click the vertical

ellipsis icon.

6 Click Remove Member.

7 Click Remove.

The user is removed from the group, but is still available in the system.

Delete vCenter Single Sign-On Solution Users

When you remove the set of services associated with a vCenter Server solution user or a third-party solution user from your environment, the solution user is removed from the vSphere Web Client display. If you forcefully remove an application, or if the system becomes unrecoverable while the solution user is still in the system, you can remove the solution user explicitly from the vSphere Web Client.

Important If you delete a solution user, the corresponding services can no longer authenticate to

vCenter Single Sign-On.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Web Client to the vCenter Server connected to the

Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the vCenter Single Sign-On user configuration UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Single Sign-On, click Users and Groups.

4 Click the Solution Users tab, and click the solution user name.

5 Click the Delete Solution User icon.

6 Click Yes.

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The services associated with the solution user no longer have access to vCenter Server and cannot function as vCenter Server services.

Change Your vCenter Single Sign-On Password

The vCenter Single Sign-On lockout policy determines when your password expires. By default, vCenter Single Sign-On user passwords expire after 90 days, but administrator passwords such as the password for administrator@vsphere.local do not expire. vCenter Single Sign-On management interfaces show a warning when your password is about to expire.

Note You can change a password only if it is not expired.

If the password is expired, the administrator of the local domain, administrator@vsphere.local by default, can reset the password by using the dir-cli password reset command. Only members of the Administrator group for the vCenter Single Sign-On domain can reset passwords.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 In the upper navigation pane, to the right of the Help menu, click your user name to pull down the

menu.

As an alternative, you can select Single Sign On > Users and Groups and select Edit User from the vertical ellipsis menu.

4 Select Change Password and type your current password.

5 Type a new password and confirm it.

The password must conform to the password policy.

6 Click OK.

vCenter Single Sign-On Security Best Practices

Follow vCenter Single Sign-On security best practices to protect your vSphere environment.

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The vSphere authentication infrastructure enhances security in your vSphere environment. To make sure that infrastructure is not compromised, follow vCenter Single Sign-On best practices.

Check password

expiration

The default vCenter Single Sign-On password policy has a password lifetime of 90 days. After 90 days, the password expires and you can no longer log in. Check the expiration and refresh passwords in a timely fashion.

Configure NTP Ensure that all systems use the same relative time source (including the

relevant localization offset), and that the relative time source can be correlated to an agreed-upon time standard (such as Coordinated Universal Time—UTC). Synchronized systems are essential for vCenter Single SignOn certificate validity, and for the validity of other vSphere certificates.

NTP also makes it easier to track an intruder in log files. Incorrect time settings can make it difficult to inspect and correlate log files to detect attacks, and can make auditing inaccurate.

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vSphere Security Certiﬁcates 3

vSphere provides security by using certificates to encrypt communications, authenticate services, and sign tokens.

vSphere uses certificates to:

Encrypt communications between two nodes, such as vCenter Server and an ESXi host.

Authenticate vSphere services.

Perform internal actions such as signing tokens.

vSphere's internal certificate authority, VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA), provides all the certificates necessary for vCenter Server and ESXi. VMCA is installed on every Platform Services Controller, immediately securing the solution without any other modification. Keeping this default configuration provides the lowest operational overhead for certificate management. vSphere provides a mechanism to renew these certificates in the event they expire.

vSphere also provides a mechanism to replace certain certificates with your own certificates. However, replace only the SSL certificate that provides encryption between nodes, to keep your certificate management overhead low.

The following options are recommended for managing certificates.

Table 3‑1. Recommended Options for Managing Certiﬁcates

Mode Description Advantages

VMCA Default Certificates VMCA provides all the certificates

for vCenter Server and ESXi hosts.

VMCA Default Certificates with External SSL Certificates (Hybrid Mode)

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You replace the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server Appliance SSL certificates, and allow VMCA to manage certificates for solution users and ESXi hosts. Optionally, for high-security conscious deployments, you can replace the ESXi host SSL certificates as well.

Simplest and lowest overhead. VMCA can manage the certificate lifecycle for vCenter Server and ESXi hosts.

Simple and secure. VMCA manages internal certificates but you get the benefit of using your corporate-approved SSL certificates, and having those certificates trusted by your browsers.

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VMware does not recommend replacing either solution user certificates or STS certificates, nor using a subordinate CA in place of the VMCA. If you choose either of these options, you might encounter significant complexity and the potential for a negative impact to your security, and an unnecessary increase in your operational risk. For more information about managing certificates within a vSphere environment, see the blog post titled New Product Walkthrough - Hybrid vSphere SSL Certificate Replacement at http://vmware.com/go/hybridvmca.

You can use the following options to replace the existing certificates:

Table 3‑2. Dierent Approaches to Certiﬁcate Replacement

Option See

Use the vSphere Client. Starting with vSphere 6.7, the Platform Services Controller is managed through the vSphere Client.

Use the vSphere Certificate Manager utility from the command line.

Use CLI commands for manual certificate replacement. Chapter 4 Managing Services and Certificates with CLI

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Client

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility

Commands

vSphere Certificate Management (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2296383276001?

bctid=ref:video_vsphere6_cert_infrastructure)

This chapter includes the following topics:

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

Manual Certificate Replacement

Certiﬁcate Requirements for Dierent Solution Paths

Certificate requirements depend on whether you use VMCA as an intermediate CA or you use custom certificates. Requirements are also different for machine certificates and for solution user certificates.

Before you begin, ensure that all nodes in your environment are time synchronized.

Requirements for All Imported Certiﬁcates

Key size: 2048 bits or more (PEM encoded)

PEM format. VMware supports PKCS8 and PKCS1 (RSA keys). When you add keys to VECS, they are converted to PKCS8.

x509 version 3

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SubjectAltName must contain DNS Name=machine_FQDN

CRT format

Contains the following Key Usages: Digital Signature, Key Encipherment.

Client Authentication and Server Authentication cannot be present under Enhanced Key Usage.

VMCA does not support the following certificates.

Certificates with wildcards

The algorithms md2WithRSAEncryption 1.2.840.113549.1.1.2, md5WithRSAEncryption

1.2.840.113549.1.1.4, and sha1WithRSAEncryption 1.2.840.113549.1.1.5 are not recommended.

The algorithm RSASSA-PSS with OID 1.2.840.113549.1.1.10 is not supported.

Certiﬁcate Compliance to RFC 2253

The certificate must be in compliance with RFC 2253.

If you do not generate CSRs using Certificate Manager, ensure that the CSR includes the following fields.

String X.500 AttributeType

STREET

UID

commonName

localityName

stateOrProvinceName

organizationName

organizationalUnitName

countryName

streetAddress

domainComponent

userid

If you generate CSRs using Certificate Manager, you are prompted for the following information, and Certificate Manager adds the corresponding fields to the CSR file.

The password of the administrator@vsphere.local user, or for the administrator of the vCenter Single Sign-On domain that you are connecting to.

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.

Information that Certificate Manager stores 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.

Password for administrator@vsphere.local.

Two-letter country code

Company name

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Organization name

Organization unit

State

Locality

IP address (optional)

Host name, that is, the fully qualified domain name of the machine for which you want to replace the certificate. If the host name does not match the FQDN, certificate replacement does not complete correctly and your environment might end up in an unstable state.

IP address of Platform Services Controller if you are running the command on a vCenter Server (management) node

Requirements When Using VMCA as an Intermediate CA

When you use VMCA as an intermediate CA, the certificates must meet the following requirements.

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Certificate Type Certificate Requirements

Root certificate

You can use vSphere Certificate Manager to create the CSR. See Generate CSR with vSphere Certificate Manager

and Prepare Root Certificate (Intermediate CA)

If you prefer to create the CSR manually, the certificate that you send to be signed must meet the following requirements.

Key size: 2048 bits or more

PEM format. VMware supports PKCS8 and PKCS1 (RSA keys). When keys are added to VECS, they are converted to PKCS8

x509 version 3

If you are using custom certificates, the CA extension must be set to true for root certificates, and cert sign must be in the list of requirements.

CRL signing must be enabled.

Enhanced Key Usage must not contain Client Authentication or Server Authentication.

No explicit limit to the length of the certificate chain. VMCA uses the OpenSSL default, which is 10 certificates.

Certificates with wildcards or with more than one DNS name are not supported.

You cannot create subsidiary CAs of VMCA.

See VMware Knowledge Base Article 2112009, Creating a Microsoft Certificate Authority Template for SSL certificate creation in vSphere 6.0, for an example using Microsoft Certificate Authority.

Machine SSL certificate You can use vSphere Certificate Manager to create the CSR or

create the CSR manually.

If you create the CSR manually, it must meet the requirements listed previously under Requirements for All Imported Certificates. You also have to specify the FQDN for the host.

Solution user certificate You can use vSphere Certificate Manager to create the CSR or

create the CSR manually.

Note You must use a different value for Name for each solution

user. If you generate the certificate manually, this might show up as CN under Subject, depending on the tool you use.

If you use vSphere Certificate Manager, the tool prompts you for certificate information for each solution user. vSphere Certificate Manager stores the information in certool.cfg. See Information that Certificate Manager Prompts For.

Requirements for Custom Certiﬁcates

When you want to use custom certificates, the certificates must meet the following requirements.

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Certificate Type Certificate Requirements

Machine SSL certificate The machine SSL certificate on each node must have a

separate certificate from your third-party or enterprise CA.

You can generate the CSRs using vSphere Certificate Manager or create the CSR manually. The CSR must meet the requirements listed previously under Requirements for All Imported Certificates.

If you use vSphere Certificate Manager, the tool prompts you for certificate information for each solution user. vSphere Certificate Manager stores the information in

certool.cfg. See Information that Certificate Manager Prompts For.

For most fields, you can accept the default or provide sitespecific values. The FQDN of the machine is required.

Solution user certificate Each solution user on each node must have a separate

certificate from your third-party or enterprise CA.

You can generate the CSRs using vSphere Certificate Manager or prepare the CSR yourself. The CSR must meet the requirements listed previously under Requirements for All Imported Certificates.

If you use vSphere Certificate Manager, The tool prompts you for certificate information for each solution user. vSphere Certificate Manager stores the information in

certool.cfg. See Information that Certificate Manager Prompts For.

Note You must use a different value for Name for each

solution user. A manually generated certificate might show up as CN under Subject, depending on the tool you use.

When later you replace solution user certificates with custom certificates, provide the complete signing certificate chain of the third-party CA.

Note Do not use CRL Distribution Points, Authority Information Access, or Certificate Template

Information in any custom certificates.

Certiﬁcate Management Overview

The work required for setting up or updating your certificate infrastructure depends on the requirements in your environment. You must consider whether you are performing a fresh install or an upgrade, and whether you are considering ESXi or vCenter Server.

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Administrators Who Do Not Replace VMware Certiﬁcates

VMCA can handle all certificate management. VMCA provisions vCenter Server components and ESXi hosts with certificates that use VMCA as the root certificate authority. If you are upgrading to vSphere 6 from an earlier version of vSphere, all self-signed certificates are replaced with certificates that are signed by VMCA.

If you do not currently replace VMware certificates, your environment starts using VMCA-signed certificates instead of self-signed certificates.

Administrators Who Replace VMware Certiﬁcates with Custom Certiﬁcates

If your company policy requires certificates that are signed by a third-party or enterprise CA, or that require custom certificate information, you have several choices for a fresh installation.

Have the VMCA root certificate signed by a third-party CA or enterprise CA. Replace the VMCA root certificate with that signed certificate. In this scenario, the VMCA certificate is an intermediate certificate. VMCA provisions vCenter Server components and ESXi hosts with certificates that include the full certificate chain.

If your company policy does not allow intermediate certificates in the chain, you can replace certificates explicitly. You can use the vSphere Client, vSphere Certificate Manager utility, or perform manual certificate replacement using the certificate management CLIs.

When upgrading an environment that uses custom certificates, you can retain some of the certificates.

ESXi hosts keep their custom certificates during upgrade. Make sure that the vCenter Server upgrade process adds all the relevant root certificates to the TRUSTED_ROOTS store in VECS on the vCenter Server.

After the upgrade to vSphere 6.0 or later, you can set the certificate mode to Custom. If the certificate mode is VMCA, the default, and the user performs a certificate refresh from the vSphere Web Client, the VMCA-signed certificates replace the custom certificates.

For vCenter Server components, what happens depends on the existing environment.

For an upgrade of a simple installation to an embedded deployment, vCenter Server retains custom certificates. After the upgrade, your environment works as before.

For an upgrade of a multi-site deployment, vCenter Single Sign-On can be on a different machine than other vCenter Server components. In that case, the upgrade process creates a multi-node deployment that includes a Platform Services Controller node and one or more management nodes.

This scenario retains the existing vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On certificates. The certificates are used as machine SSL certificates.

In addition, VMCA assigns a VMCA-signed certificate to each solution user (collection of vCenter services). The solution user uses this certificate only to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On. Replacing solution user certificates is often not required by a company policy.

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You can no longer use the vSphere 5.5 certificate replacement tool, which was available for vSphere

5.5 installations. The new architecture results in a different service distribution and placement. A new command-line utility, vSphere Certificate Manager, is available for most certificate management tasks.

vSphere Certiﬁcate Interfaces

For vCenter Server, you can view and replace certificates with the following tools and interfaces.

Table 3‑3. Interfaces for Managing vCenter Server Certiﬁcates

Interface Use

vSphere Client Perform common certificate tasks with a graphical user

interface.

vSphere Certificate Manager utility Perform common certificate replacement tasks from the

command line of the vCenter Server installation.

Certificate management CLIs Perform all certificate management tasks with dir-cli,

certool, and vecs-cli.

vSphere Web Client View certificates, including expiration information.

For ESXi, you perform certificate management from the vSphere Web Client. VMCA provisions certificates and stores them locally on the ESXi host. VMCA does not store ESXi host certificates in VMDIR or in VECS. See the vSphere Security documentation.

Supported vCenter Certiﬁcates

For vCenter Server, the Platform Services Controller, and related machines and services, the following certificates are supported:

Certificates that are generated and signed by VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA).

Custom certificates.

Enterprise certificates that are generated from your own internal PKI.

Third-party CA-signed certificates that are generated by an external PKI such as Verisign, GoDaddy, and so on.

Self-signed certificates that were created using OpenSSL in which no Root CA exists are not supported.

Certiﬁcate Replacement Overview

You can perform different types of certificate replacement depending on company policy and requirements for the system that you are configuring. You can perform certificate replacement from the Platform Services Controller, by using the vSphere Certificate Manager utility or manually by using the CLIs included with your installation.

VMCA is included in each Platform Services Controller and in each embedded deployment. VMCA provisions each node, each vCenter Server solution user, and each ESXi host with a certificate that is signed by VMCA as the certificate authority. vCenter Server solution users are groups of vCenter Server services.

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CA-Cert

VECS

Machine-Cert

Signed

VMCA

Platform Services Controller Administration

You can replace the default certificates. For vCenter Server components, you can use a set of commandline tools included in your installation. You have several options.

Replace With Certiﬁcates Signed by VMCA

If your VMCA certificate expires or you want to replace it for other reasons, you can use the certificate management CLIs to perform that process. By default, the VMCA root certificate expires after ten years, and all certificates that VMCA signs expire when the root certificate expires, that is, after a maximum of ten years.

Figure 3‑1. Certiﬁcates Signed by VMCA Are Stored in VECS

You can use the following vSphere Certificate Manager options:

Replace Machine SSL Certificate with VMCA Certificate

Replace Solution User Certificate with VMCA Certificate

For manual certificate replacement, see Replace Existing VMCA-Signed Certificates With New VMCA-

Signed Certificates.

Make VMCA an Intermediate CA

You can replace the VMCA root certificate with a certificate that is signed by an enterprise CA or thirdparty CA. VMCA signs the custom root certificate each time it provisions certificates, making VMCA an intermediate CA.

Note If you perform a fresh install that includes an external Platform Services Controller, install the

Platform Services Controller first and replace the VMCA root certificate. Next, install other services or add ESXi hosts to your environment. If you perform a fresh install with an embedded Platform Services Controller, replace the VMCA root certificate before you add ESXi hosts. If you do, VMCA signs the whole chain, and you do not have to generate new certificates.

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CA-Cert

VECS

Machine-Cert

Signed

VMware vSphere

VMCA

Root

CA-Cert

Enterprise

CA-Cert

Signed Signed

Unused

VECS

Machine-Cert

VMware vSphere

VMCA

External CA

(Commercial or

Enterprise)

Signed

Platform Services Controller Administration

Figure 3‑2. Certiﬁcates Signed by a Third-Party or Enterprise CA Use VMCA as an Intermediate CA

You can use the following vSphere Certificate Manager options:

Replace VMCA Root Certificate with Custom Signing Certificate and Replace All Certificates

Replace Machine SSL Certificate with VMCA Certificate (multi-node deployment)

Replace Solution User Certificate with VMCA Certificate (multi-node deployment)

For manual certificate replacement, see Use VMCA as an Intermediate Certificate Authority.

Do Not Use VMCA, Provision with Custom Certiﬁcates

You can replace the existing VMCA-signed certificates with custom certificates. If you use that approach, you are responsible for all certificate provisioning and monitoring.

Figure 3‑3. External Certiﬁcates are Stored Directly in VECS

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You can use the following vSphere Certificate Manager options:

Replace Machine SSL Certificate with Custom Certificate

Replace Solution User Certificates with Custom Certificates

For manual certificate replacement, see Use Custom Certificates With vSphere.

Hybrid Deployment

You can have VMCA supply some of the certificates, but use custom certificates for other parts of your infrastructure. For example, because solution user certificates are used only to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On, consider having VMCA provision those certificates. Replace the machine SSL certificates with custom certificates to secure all SSL traffic.

Company policy often does not allow intermediate CAs. For those cases, hybrid deployment is a good solution. It minimizes the number of certificates to replace, and secures all traffic. The hybrid deployment leaves only internal traffic, that is, solution user traffic, to use the default VMCA-signed certificates

ESXi Certiﬁcate Replacement

For ESXi hosts, you can change certificate provisioning behavior from the vSphere Web Client. See the vSphere Security documentation for details.

Table 3‑4. ESXi Certiﬁcate Replacement Options

Option Description

VMware Certificate Authority mode (default) When you renew certificates from the vSphere Web Client,

VMCA issues the certificates for the hosts. If you changed the VMCA root certificate to include a certificate chain, the host certificates include the full chain.

Custom Certificate Authority mode Allows you to manually update and use certificates that are not

signed or issued by VMCA.

Thumbprint mode Can be used to retain 5.5 certificates during refresh. Use this

mode only temporarily in debugging situations.

Where vSphere Uses Certiﬁcates

In vSphere 6.0 and later, the VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) provisions your environment with certificates. Certificates include machine SSL certificates for secure connections, solution user certificates for authentication of services to vCenter Single Sign-On, and certificates for ESXi hosts.

The following certificates are in use.

Table 3‑5. Certiﬁcates in vSphere 6.0 and Later

Certificate Provisioned Comments

ESXi certificates VMCA (default) Stored locally on ESXi host

Machine SSL certificates VMCA (default) Stored in VECS

Solution user certificates VMCA (default) Stored in VECS

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Table 3‑5. Certiﬁcates in vSphere 6.0 and Later (Continued)

Certificate Provisioned Comments

vCenter Single Sign-On SSL signing certificate

VMware Directory Service (VMDIR) SSL certificate

Provisioned during installation. Manage this certificate from the vSphere Web Client.

Note Do not change this certificate in the filesystem

or unpredictable behavior results.

Provisioned during installation. Starting with vSphere 6.5, the machine SSL certificate

is used as the vmdir certificate.

ESXi

ESXi certificates are stored locally on each host in the /etc/vmware/ssl directory. ESXi certificates are provisioned by VMCA by default, but you can use custom certificates instead. ESXi certificates are provisioned when the host is first added to vCenter Server and when the host reconnects.

Machine SSL Certiﬁcates

The machine SSL certificate for each node is used to create an SSL socket on the server side. SSL clients connect to the SSL socket. The certificate is used for server verification and for secure communication such as HTTPS or LDAPS.

Each node has its own machine SSL certificate. Nodes include vCenter Server instance, Platform Services Controller instance, or embedded deployment instance. All services that are running on a node use the machine SSL certificate to expose their SSL endpoints.

The following services use the machine SSL certificate.

The reverse proxy service on each Platform Services Controller node. SSL connections to individual vCenter services always go to the reverse proxy. Traffic does not go to the services themselves.

The vCenter service (vpxd) on management nodes and embedded nodes.

The VMware Directory Service (vmdir) on infrastructure nodes and embedded nodes.

VMware products use standard X.509 version 3 (X.509v3) certificates to encrypt session information. Session information is sent over SSL between components.

Solution User Certiﬁcates

A solution user encapsulates one or more vCenter Server services. Each solution user must be authenticated to vCenter Single Sign-On. Solution users use certificates to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On through SAML token exchange.

A solution user presents the certificate to vCenter Single Sign-On when it first has to authenticate, after a reboot, and after a timeout has elapsed. The timeout (Holder-of-Key Timeout) can be set from the vSphere Web Client and defaults to 2592000 seconds (30 days).

For example, the vpxd solution user presents its certificate to vCenter Single Sign-On when it connects to vCenter Single Sign-On. The vpxd solution user receives a SAML token from vCenter Single Sign-On and can then use that token to authenticate to other solution users and services.

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The following solution user certificate stores are included in VECS on each management node and each embedded deployment:

machine: Used by component manager, license server, and the logging service.

Note The machine solution user certificate has nothing to do with the machine SSL certificate. The

machine solution user certificate is used for the SAML token exchange. The machine SSL certificate is used for secure SSL connections for a machine.

vpxd: vCenter service daemon (vpxd) store on management nodes and embedded deployments. vpxd uses the solution user certificate that is stored in this store to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.

vpxd-extension: vCenter extensions store. Includes the Auto Deploy service, inventory service, and other services that are not part of other solution users.

vsphere-webclient: vSphere Web Client store. Also includes some additional services such as the performance chart service.

Each Platform Services Controller node includes a machine certificate.

Internal Certiﬁcates

vCenter Single Sign-On certificates are not stored in VECS and are not managed with certificate management tools. As a rule, changes are not necessary, but in special situations, you can replace these certificates.

vCenter Single Sign-On

Signing Certificate

VMware Directory

Service SSL Certificate

The vCenter Single Sign-On service includes an identity provider service which issues SAML tokens that are used for authentication throughout vSphere. A SAML token represents the user's identity, and also contains group membership information. When vCenter Single Sign-On issues SAML tokens, it signs each token with its signing certificate so that clients of vCenter Single Sign-On can verify that the SAML token comes from a trusted source.

vCenter Single Sign-On issues holder-of-key SAML tokens to solution users and bearer tokens other users, which log in with a user name and password.

You can replace this certificate from the vSphere Web Client. See Refresh

the Security Token Service Certificate.

Starting with vSphere 6.5, the machine SSL certificate is used as the VMware directory certificate. For earlier versions of vSphere, see the corresponding documentation.

vSphere Virtual

Machine Encryption

Certificates

The vSphere Virtual Machine Encryption solution connects with an external Key Management Server (KMS). Depending on how the solution authenticates to the KMS, it might generate certificates and store them in VECS. See the vSphere Security documentation.

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VMCA and VMware Core Identity Services

Core identity services are part of every embedded deployment and every platform services node. VMCA is part of every VMware core identity services group. Use the management CLIs and the vSphere Web Client to interact with these services.

VMware core identity services include several components.

Table 3‑6. Core Identity Services

Service Description Included in

VMware Directory Service (vmdir) Handles SAML certificate management for

authentication in conjunction with vCenter Single Sign-On.

VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA)

VMware Authentication Framework Daemon (VMAFD)

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.

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

Embedded deployment

Platform Services Controller

Embedded deployment

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 root 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.

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Table 3‑7. Stores in VECS

Store Description

Machine SSL store (MACHINE_SSL_CERT)

Used by the reverse proxy service on every vSphere node.

Used by the VMware Directory Service (vmdir) on embedded deployments and on each Platform Services Controller node.

All services in vSphere 6.0 and later 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.

Solution user stores

machine

vpxd

vpxd-extension

vsphere-webclient

VECS includes one store for each solution user. The subject of each solution user certificate must be unique, for example, the machine certificate cannot have the same subject as the vpxd certificate.

Solution user certificates are used for authentication with vCenter Single Sign-On. vCenter Single Sign-On checks that the certificate is valid, but does not check other certificate attributes. In an embedded deployment, all solution user certificates are on the same system.

The following solution user certificate stores are included in VECS on each management node and each embedded deployment:

machine: Used by component manager, license server, and the logging service.

Note The machine solution user certificate has nothing to

do with the machine SSL certificate. The machine solution user certificate is used for the SAML token exchange. The machine SSL certificate is used for secure SSL connections for a machine.

vpxd: vCenter service daemon (vpxd) store on management nodes and embedded deployments. vpxd uses the solution user certificate that is stored in this store to authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.

vpxd-extension: vCenter extensions store. Includes the Auto Deploy service, inventory service, and other services that are not part of other solution users.

vsphere-webclient: vSphere Web Client store. Also includes some additional services such as the performance chart service.

Each Platform Services Controller node includes a machine certificate.

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Table 3‑7. Stores in VECS (Continued)

Store Description

vSphere Certificate Manager Utility backup store (BACKUP_STORE)

Other stores Other stores might be added by solutions. For example, the

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.

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-themiddle 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.

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Certiﬁcate Replacement in High Availability Environments That Include a Load Balancer

In environments with less than eight vCenter Server systems, VMware typically recommends a single Platform Services Controller instance and associated vCenter Single Sign-On service. In larger environments, consider using multiple Platform Services Controller instances, protected by a network load balancer. The white paper vCenter Server 6.0 Deployment Guide on the VMware website discusses this setup.

Replacement of Machine SSL Certiﬁcates in Environments with Multiple Management Nodes

If your environment includes multiple management nodes and a single Platform Services Controller, you can replace certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager utility, or manually with vSphere CLI commands.

vSphere Certificate

Manager

Manual Certificate

Replacement

You run vSphere Certificate Manager on each machine. On management nodes, you are prompted for the IP address of the Platform Services Controller. Depending on the task you perform, you are also prompted for certificate information.

For manual certificate replacement, you run the certificate replacement commands on each machine. On management nodes, you must specify the Platform Services Controller with the --server parameter. See the following topics for details:

Replace Machine SSL Certificates with VMCA-Signed Certificates

Replace Machine SSL Certificates (Intermediate CA)

Replace Machine SSL Certificates With Custom Certificates

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Replacement of Solution User Certiﬁcates in Environments with Multiple Management Nodes

If your environment includes multiple management nodes and a single Platform Services Controller, follow these steps for certificate replacement.

Note When you list solution user certificates in large deployments, the output of dir-cli list includes

all solution users from all nodes. Run vmafd-cli get-machine-id --server-name localhost to find the local machine ID for each host. Each solution user name includes the machine ID.

vSphere Certificate

Manager

Manual Certificate

Replacement

1 Generate or request a certificate. You need the following certificates:

A certificate for the machine solution user on the Platform Services Controller.

A certificate for the machine solution user on each management node.

A certificate for each of the following solution users on each management node:

vpxd solution user

vpxd-extension solution user

vsphere-webclient solution user

2 Replace the certificates on each node. The precise process depends

on the type of certificate replacement that you are performing. See

Managing Certificates with the vSphere Certificate Manager Utility

See the following topics for details:

Replace Solution User Certificates With New VMCA-Signed Certificates

Replace Solution User Certificates (Intermediate CA)

Replace Solution User Certificates With Custom Certificates

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Certiﬁcate Replacement in Environments That Include External Solutions

Some solutions, such as VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager or VMware vSphere Replication, are always installed on a different machine than the vCenter Server system or Platform Services Controller. If you replace the default machine SSL certificate on the vCenter Server system or the Platform Services Controller, a connection error results if the solution attempts to connect to the vCenter Server system.

You can run the ls_update_certs script to resolve the issue. See VMware Knowledge Base article

2109074 for details.

Managing Certiﬁcates with the vSphere Client

You can view and manage certificates by using the vSphere Client. You also can perform many certificate management tasks with the vSphere Certificate Manager utility.

The vSphere Client enables you to perform these management tasks.

View the trusted root certificates and SSL certificates.

Renew existing certificates or replace certificates.

Most parts of the certificate replacement workflows are supported fully from the vSphere Client. For generating CSRs, you can use the vSphere Certificate Manage utility.

Supported Workﬂows

After you install a Platform Services Controller, the VMware Certificate Authority on that node provisions all other nodes in the environment with certificates by default. See Chapter 3 vSphere Security

Certificates for recommendations on the current recommendations for managing certificates.

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You can use one of the following workflows to renew or replace certificates.

Renew Certificates You can have VMCA renew SSL and solution user certificates in your

environment from the vSphere Client.

Make VMCA an

Intermediate CA

You can generate a CSR using the vSphere Certificate Manager utility. You can then edit the certificate you receive from the CSR to add VMCA to the chain, and then add the certificate chain and private key to your environment. When you then renew all certificates, VMCA provisions all machines and solution users with certificates that the full chain has signed.

Replace Certificates

with Custom

Certificates

If you do not want to use VMCA, you can generate CSRs for the certificates that you want to replace. The CA returns a root certificate and a signed certificate for each CSR. You can upload the root certificate and the custom certificates from the Platform Services Controller.

Note If you use VMCA as an intermediate CA, or use custom certificates, you might encounter

significant complexity and the potential for a negative impact to your security, and an unnecessary increase in your operational risk. For more information about managing certificates within a vSphere environment, see the blog post titled New Product Walkthrough - Hybrid vSphere SSL Certificate Replacement at http://vmware.com/go/hybridvmca.

In a mixed-mode environment, you can use CLI commands to replace the vCenter Single Sign-On certificate after replacing the other certificates. See Replace the VMware Directory Service Certificate in

Mixed Mode Environments.

Explore Certiﬁcate Stores from the vSphere Client

A VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) instance is included on each Platform Services Controller node and each vCenter Server node. You can explore the different stores inside the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store from the vSphere Client.

See VMware Endpoint Certificate Store Overview for details on the different stores inside VECS.

Prerequisites

For most management tasks, you must have the password for the administrator for the local domain account, administrator@vsphere.local or a different domain if you changed the domain during installation.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

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3 Navigate to the Certificate Management UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Certificates, click Certificate Management.

4 Enter the credentials of your vCenter Server.

5 Explore the certificates stored inside the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS).

VMware Endpoint Certificate Store Overview explains what is in the individual stores.

6 To view details for a certificate, select the certificate and click View Details.

7 Use the Actions menu to renew or replace certificates.

For example, if you replace the existing certificate, you can later remove the old root certificate. Remove certificates only if you are sure that they are no longer in use.

Replace Certiﬁcates with New VMCA-Signed Certiﬁcates from the vSphere Client

You can replace all VMCA-signed certificates with new VMCA-signed certificates. This process is called renewing certificates. You can renew selected certificates or all certificates in your environment from the vSphere Client.

Prerequisites

For certificate management, you have to supply the password of the administrator of the local domain (administrator@vsphere.local by default). If you are renewing certificates for a vCenter Server system, you also have to supply the vCenter Single Sign-On credentials for a user with administrator privileges on the vCenter Server system.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Navigate to the Certificate Management UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Certificates, click Certificate Management.

4 Enter the credentials of your vCenter Server.

5 Renew the machine SSL certificate for the local system.

a Select Machine SSL Certificate.

b Click Actions > Renew.

A message appears that the certificate is renewed.

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6 (Optional) Renew the Solution User certificates for the local system.

a Under Solution Certificates, select a certificate.

b Click Actions > Renew to renew individual selected certificates, or click Renew All to renew all

solution user certificates.

A message appears that the certificate is renewed.

7 If your environment includes an external Platform Services Controller, you can then renew the

certificates for each of the vCenter Server system.

a Click the Logout button in the Certificate Management panel.

b When prompted, specify the IP address or FQDN of the vCenter Server system and user name

and password of a vCenter Server administrator who can authenticate to vCenter Single Sign-On.

c Renew the machine SSL certificate on the vCenter Server and, optionally, each solution user

certificate.

d If you have multiple vCenter Server systems in your environment, repeat the process for each

system.

What to do next

Restart services on the Platform Services Controller. You can either restart the Platform Services Controller, or run the following commands from the command line:

Windows

On Windows, the service-control command is located at

VCENTER_INSTALL_PATH\bin.

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

Set up Your System to Use Custom Certiﬁcates from the Platform Services Controller

You can use the Platform Services Controller to set up your environment to use custom certificates.

You can generate Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) for each machine and for each solution user using the Certificate Manager utility. When you submit the CSRs to your internal or third-party CA, the CA returns signed certificates and the root certificate. You can upload both the root certificate and the signed certificates from the Platform Services Controller UI.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

3 Select option 1 to generate the CSR, answer the prompts and exit Certificate Manager.

As part of the process, you have to provide a directory. Certificate Manager places the certificate and key files in the directory.

4 If you also want to replace all solution user certificates, restart Certificate Manager.

5 Select option 5.

6 Supply the password and the Platform Services Controller IP address or host name if prompted.

7 Select option 1 to generate the CSRs, answer the prompts and exit Certificate Manager.

As part of the process, you have to provide a directory. Certificate Manager places the certificate and key files in the directory.

On each Platform Services Controller node, Certificate Manager generates one certificate and key pair. On each vCenter Server node, Certificate Manager generates four certificate and key pairs.

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What to do next

Perform certificate replacement.

Add a Trusted Root Certiﬁcate to the Certiﬁcate Store

If you want to use third-party certificates in your environment, you must add a trusted root certificate to the certificate store.

Prerequisites

Obtain the custom root certificate from your third-party or in-house CA.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Log in as an administrator.

4 Navigate to the Certificate Management UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Certificates, click Certificate Management.

5 Under Trusted Root Certificates, click Add.

6 Click Browse and select the location of the certificate chain.

You can use a file of type CER, PEM, or CRT.

What to do next

Replace the Machine SSL certificates and, optionally, the solution user certificates with certificates that are signed by this CA.

Add Custom Certiﬁcates from the Platform Services Controller

You can add custom Machine SSL certificates and custom solution user certificates to the certificate store from the Platform Services Controller.

In most cases, replacing the machine SSL certificate for each component is sufficient. The solution user certificate remains behind a proxy.

Prerequisites

Generate certificate signing requests (CSRs) for each certificate that you want to replace. You can generate the CSRs with the Certificate Manager utility. Place the certificate and private key in a location that the Platform Services Controller can access.

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Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Client to the vCenter Server connected to the Platform Services Controller.

2 Specify the user name and password for administrator@vsphere.local or another member of the

vCenter Single Sign-On Administrators group.

If you specified a different domain during installation, log in as administrator@mydomain.

3 Log in as an administrator.

4 Navigate to the Certificate Management UI.

a From the Home menu, select Administration.

b Under Certificates, click Certificate Management.

5 To replace a machine certificate follow these steps:

a Under Machine SSL Certificate, for the certificate that you want to replace click Actions >

Replace.

b Click Browse to replace the certificate chain, then click Browse to replace the private key.

6 To replace the solution user certificates, follow these steps:

a Under Solution Certificates, for the first of the certificates for a component, for example,

machine, click Actions > Replace.

b Click Browse to replace the certificate chain, then click Browse to replace the private key.

c Repeat the process for the other certificates for the same component.

What to do next

Restart services on the Platform Services Controller. You can either restart the Platform Services Controller, or run the following commands from the command line:

Windows

On Windows, the service-control command is located at

VCENTER_INSTALL_PATH\bin.

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

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Managing Certiﬁcates from the vSphere Web Client

You can explore certificates from the vSphere Web Client, and you can set the threshold for expiration warnings. Perform all other management tasks from the vSphere Client.

See Managing Certificates with the vSphere Client.

View vCenter Certiﬁcates with the vSphere Web Client

You can view the certificates known to the vCenter Certificate Authority (VMCA) to see whether active certificates are about to expire, to check on expired certificates, and to see the status of the root certificate. You perform all certificate management tasks using the certificate management CLIs.

You view certificates associated with the VMCA instance that is included with your embedded deployment or with the Platform Services Controller. Certificate information is replicated across instances of VMware Directory Service (vmdir).

When you attempt to view certificates in the vSphere Web Client, you are prompted for a user name and password. Specify the user name and password of a user with privileges for VMware Certificate Authority, that is, a user in the CAAdmins vCenter Single Sign-On group.

Procedure

1 Log in with the vSphere Web Client to vCenter Server as administrator@vsphere.local or another

user of the CAAdmins vCenter Single Sign-On group.

2 From the Home menu, select Administration.

3 Click Deployment > System Configuration.

4 Click Nodes, and select a host under the Nodes list.

5 Click the Manage tab, and click Certificate Authority.

6 Click the certificate type for which you want to view certificate information.

Option Description

Active Certificates Displays active certificates, including their validation information. The green Valid

To icon changes when certificate expiration is approaching.

Revoked Certificates Displays the list of revoked certificates. Not supported in this release.

Expired Certificates Lists expired certificates.

Root Certificates Displays the root certificates available to this instance of vCenter Certificate

Authority.

7 Select a certificate and click the Show Certificate Details button to view certificate details.

Details include the Subject Name, Issuer, Validity, and Algorithm.

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Set the Threshold for vCenter Certiﬁcate Expiration Warnings

Starting with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server monitors all certificates in the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) and issues an alarm when a certificate is 30 days or less from its expiration. You can change how soon you are warned with the vpxd.cert.threshold advanced option.

Procedure

1 Log in to the vSphere Web Client.

2 Select the vCenter Server object and click Configure.

3 Click Advanced Settings and filter for threshold.

4 Change the setting of vpxd.cert.threshold to the desired value and click OK.

Managing Certiﬁcates with the vSphere Certiﬁcate Manager Utility

The vSphere Certificate Manager utility allows you to perform most certificate management tasks interactively from the command line. vSphere Certificate Manager prompts you for the task to perform, for certificate locations and other information as needed, and then stops and starts services and replaces certificates for you.

If you use vSphere Certificate Manager, you are not responsible for placing the certificates in VECS (VMware Endpoint Certificate Store) and you are not responsible for starting and stopping services.

Before you run vSphere Certificate Manager, be sure you understand the replacement process and procure the certificates that you want to use.

Caution vSphere Certificate Manager supports one level of revert. If you run vSphere Certificate

Manager twice and notice that you unintentionally corrupted your environment, the tool cannot revert the first of the two runs.

Certiﬁcate Manager Utility Location

You can run the tool on the command line as follows:

Windows

Linux

1 Certificate Manager Options and the Workflows in This Document

You run Certificate Manager options in sequence to complete a workflow. Several options, for example, generating CSRs, are used in different workflows.

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmcad\certificate-manager.bat

/usr/lib/vmware-vmca/bin/certificate-manager

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2 Regenerate a New VMCA Root Certificate and Replace All Certificates

You can regenerate the VMCA root certificate, and replace the local machine SSL certificate, and the local solution user certificates with VMCA-signed certificates. In multi-node deployments, run vSphere Certificate Manager with this option on the Platform Services Controller and then run the utility again on all other nodes and select

Replace Machine SSL certificate with VMCA Certificate and Replace Solution user certificates with VMCA certificates.

3 Make VMCA an Intermediate Certificate Authority (Certificate Manager)

You can make VMCA an Intermediate CA by following the prompts from Certificate Manager utility. After you complete the process, VMCA signs all new certificates with the full chain. If you want, you can use Certificate Manager to replace all existing certificates with new VMCA-signed certificates.

4 Replace All Certificates with Custom Certificate (Certificate Manager)

You can use the vSphere Certificate Manager utility to replace all certificates with custom certificates. Before you start the process, you must send CSRs to your CA. You can use Certificate Manager to generate the CSRs.

5 Revert Last Performed Operation by Republishing Old Certificates

When you perform a certificate management operation by using vSphere Certificate Manager, the current certificate state is stored in the BACKUP_STORE store in VECS before certificates are replaced. You can revert the last performed operation and return to the previous state.

6 Reset All Certificates

Use the Reset All Certificates option if you want to replace all existing vCenter certificates with certificates that are signed by VMCA.

Certiﬁcate Manager Options and the Workﬂows in This Document

You run Certificate Manager options in sequence to complete a workflow. Several options, for example, generating CSRs, are used in different workflows.

Replace VMCA Root Certiﬁcate with Custom Signing Certiﬁcate and Replace All Certiﬁcates.

This is a single-option workflow (Option 2) can be used by itself, or in the intermediate certificate workflow. See Regenerate a New VMCA Root Certificate and Replace All Certificates.

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Make VMCA an Intermediate Certiﬁcate Authority

To make VMCA an intermediate CA, you have to run Certificate Manager several times. The workflow gives the complete set of steps for replacing both machine SSL certificates and solution user certificates. It explains what to do in environments with embedded Platform Services Controller or external Platform Services Controller.

1 To generate a CSR, select Option 2, Replace VMCA Root certificate with Custom Signing Certificate

and replace all Certificates. You might have to provide some information about the certificate next. When prompted for an option again, select Option 1.

Submit the CSR to your external or enterprise CA. You receive a signed certificate and a root certificate from the CA.

2 Combine the VMCA root certificate with the CA root certificate and save the file.

3 Select Option 2, Replace VMCA Root certificate with Custom Signing Certificate and replace all

Certificates. This process replaces all certificates on the local machine.

4 In a multi-node deployment, you have to replace certificates on each node.

a First you replace the machine SSL certificate with the (new) VMCA certificate (Option 3)

b Then you replace the solution user certificates with the (new) VMCA certificate (Option 6).

See Make VMCA an Intermediate Certificate Authority (Certificate Manager)

Replacing All Certiﬁcate With Custom Certiﬁcates

To replace all certificates with custom certificates, you have to run Certificate Manager several times. The workflow gives the complete set of steps for replacing both machine SSL certificates and solution user certificates. It explains what to do in environments with embedded Platform Services Controller or external Platform Services Controller.

1 You generate certificate signing requests for the machine SSL certificate and the solution user

certificates separately on each machine.

a To generate CSRs for the machine SSL certificate, you select Option 1.

b If company policy requires that you replace all certificates, you also select Option 5.

2 After you received the signed certificates and the root certificate from your CA, you replace the

machine SSL certificate on each machine by using Option 1.

3 If you also want to replace the solution user certificates, you select Option 5.

4 Finally, in a multi-node deployment, you have to repeat the process on each node.

See Replace All Certificates with Custom Certificate (Certificate Manager).

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VMware ESXI - 6.7 Administrator’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

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

Platform Services Controller Services

Manage Platform Services Controller Services From the vSphere Client

Manage Platform Services Controller Services From the vSphere Web Client

Use Scripts to Manage Platform Services Controller Services

Managing the Platform Services Controller Appliance

Manage the Appliance with the Platform Services Controller Virtual Appliance Management Interface

Manage the Appliance from the Appliance Shell

Add a Platform Services Controller Appliance to an Active Directory Domain

Understanding vCenter Single Sign-On

How vCenter Single Sign-On Protects Your Environment

vCenter Single Sign-On Components

Using vCenter Single Sign-On with vSphere

Groups in the vCenter Single Sign-On Domain

Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On

Set the Default Domain for vCenter Single Sign-On

Add or Edit a vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Source

Active Directory Identity Source Settings

Active Directory LDAP Server and OpenLDAP Server Identity Source Settings

Use vCenter Single Sign-On With Windows Session Authentication

Understanding vCenter Server Two-Factor Authentication

Smart Card Authentication Login

Configure the Reverse Proxy to Request Client Certificates

Use the Command Line to Manage Smart Card Authentication

Manage Smart Card Authentication

Set Revocation Policies for Smart Card Authentication

Set Up RSA SecurID Authentication

Manage the Login Message

Using vCenter Single Sign-On as the Identity Provider for Another Service Provider

Join a SAML Service Provider to the Identity Federation

Security Token Service STS

Managing vCenter Single Sign-On Policies

Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Password Policy

Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Lockout Policy

Edit the vCenter Single Sign-On Token Policy

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

Certificate Requirements for Different Solution Paths

VMCA and VMware Core Identity Services