ESX Virtualization

VMware ESXi, vSphere, VMware Backup, Hyper-V... how-to, videos....

Nakivo Backup and Replication - #1 Backup solution for Virtual, physical, cloud, NAS and SaaS

Menu
  • Certification
      • VCP-DCV vSphere 8
          • vcp2024-125.
        • Close
    • Close
  • VMware
    • Configuration Maximums
    • vSphere
      • vSphere 8.0
      • vSphere 7.0
      • vSphere 6.7
      • vSphere 6.5
      • vSphere 6.0
      • Close
    • VMworld
      • VMware EXPLORE 2024
      • VMware EXPLORE 2023
      • VMware EXPLORE 2022
      • VMworld 2019
      • VMworld 2018
      • VMworld 2017
      • VMworld 2016
      • VMworld 2015
      • VMworld 2014
      • VMworld 2013
      • VMworld 2012
      • VMworld 2011
      • Close
    • Close
  • Microsoft
    • Windows Server 2012
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Close
  • Categories
    • Tips – VMware, Microsoft and General IT tips and definitions, What is this?, How this works?
    • Server Virtualization – VMware ESXi, ESXi Free Hypervizor, VMware vSphere Server Virtualization, VMware Cloud and Datacenter Virtualization
    • Backup – Virtualization Backup Solutions, VMware vSphere Backup and ESXi backup solutions.
    • Desktop Virtualization – Desktop Virtualization, VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Horizon View, tips and tutorials
    • How To – ESXi Tutorials, IT and virtualization tutorials, VMware ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x and VMware vSphere. VMware Workstation and other IT tutorials.
    • Free – Free virtualization utilities, ESXi Free, Monitoring and free backup utilities for ESXi and Hyper-V. Free IT tools.
    • Videos – VMware Virtualization Videos, VMware ESXi Videos, ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x tips and videos.
    • Home Lab
    • Reviews – Virtualization Software and reviews, Disaster and backup recovery software reviews. Virtual infrastructure monitoring software review.
    • Close
  • Partners
    • NAKIVO
    • StarWind
    • Zerto
    • Xorux
    • Close
  • This Web
    • News
    • ESXi Lab
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Archives
    • Disclaimer
    • PDFs and Books
    • Close
  • Free
  • Privacy policy

vCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0

By Vladan SEGET | Last Updated: February 17, 2017

Shares

Update: You might want to follow the How to use VMware Certificate Automation Tool, my recent article where I'm using the tool to replace SSL certificates in my lab.

Managing certificates through vCenter components is a pain. VMware reacts (finally) and released a command line tool called vCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0 which enables you to automate the deployment of certificates for different vCenter components like SSO, vCenter, View Connection server etc… The tool does provide automation of deployment, but does not manage the actual generation of SSL certificates, which needs to be done through other methods. It does not deploy certificates for using in ESXi hosts, the tool manage (deploy, replace) certificates in vCenter components only:

  • vCenter Server
  • vCenter Single Sign On
  • vCenter Inventory Service
  • vSphere Web Client
  • vCenter Log Browser
  • VMware Update Manager (VUM)
  • vCenter Orchestrator (VCO)

vCenter Certificate Automation Tool

The tool is to be used to deploy self-signed or certificates obtained from public Certification Authorities. In both cases it's possible to use the vCenter Certificate Automation Tool to automate the process.

To Generate the SSL certificates? Via OpenSSL

VMware provides a KB article guiding you to use OpenSSL to generate certificates, there is full step-by-step KB. You're guided to generate the certificates requests, obtain the certificate and also create the PEM files needed for the deployments.

Supported Platforms are 2003R2 SP2 and 2008R2 SP2. For Windows Server 2012 we'll have to wait until the next major release of VMware vSphere, I think.

vCenter Certificate Automation Tool 1.0 – Useful links:

  • Generating certificates for use with the VMware SSL Certificate Automation Tool
  • Deploying and using the SSL Certificate Automation Tool
  • Download Link for the tool with a Getting Started guide

It took very long to VMware to actually ease the pain for many VMware admins, which were battling with certificates (especially after the 5.1 release). So long that private initiatives started to develop their own tools. This is the case of Michael Webster, who develops a tool which not only will generate the SSL certificates, but also will handle the whole deployment, management or replacement process.  His tool (still in development) is called vCert Manager and you can find a blog post about it on Michael's blog here.

Source: VMware Support Insider Blog

Shares
Vote !

| Filed Under: Server Virtualization

About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

Connect on: Facebook. Feel free to network via Twitter @vladan.

Comments

  1. Alireza says

    April 5, 2013 at 11:18 pm

    Have you tried the compatibility mode for server 2012?
    will it work?

    • Vladan SEGET says

      April 8, 2013 at 1:39 pm

      The vCenter on 2012 isn’t supported yet. See this: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/419232

Private Sponsors

Featured

  • Thinking about HCI? G2, an independent tech solutions peer review platform, has published its Winter 2023 Reports on Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions.
  • Zerto: One Platform for Disaster Recovery, Backup & Cloud Mobility: Try FREE Hands-On Labs Today!
Click to Become a Sponsor

Most Recent

  • FREE version of StarWind VSAN vs Trial of Full version
  • Commvault’s Innovations at RSA Conference 2025 San Francisco
  • VMware ESXi FREE is FREE again!
  • Installation of StarWind VSAN Plugin for vSphere
  • Protect Mixed environments with Nakivo Physical Machine recovery (bare metal)
  • No more FREE licenses of VMware vSphere for vExperts – What’s your options?
  • Tails – Your Private OS on USB Stick
  • StarWind V2V Converter Now has CLI
  • Veeam VHR ISO v2 – 2025 Download and Install
  • Deployment OVA and Installation of Nakivo Backup and Replication for VMware

Get new posts by email:

 

 

 

 

Support us on Ko-Fi

 

 

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Sponsors

Free Trials

  • DC Scope for VMware vSphere – optimization, capacity planning, and cost management. Download FREE Trial Here.
  • Augmented Inline Deduplication, Altaro VM Backup v9 For #VMware and #Hyper-V – Grab your copy now download TRIAL.

VMware Engineer Jobs

VMware Engineer Jobs

YouTube

…

Find us on Facebook

ESX Virtualization

…

Copyright © 2025 ·Dynamik-Gen · Genesis Framework · Log in