Month: April 2015

vSphere 6.0 Install Pt. 15: VCSA vCenter Install

vSphere 6.0 Install Pt. 15: VCSA vCenter Install

If you are a VCSA (vCenter server appliance) convert, and wish to use the vCenter server appliance, this post is for you! It assumes you already have an external VCSA PSC setup, per Part 10. So this post will walk you through a similar deployment process, but this time install vCenter instead...

Critical VMware Security Patches Released

In case you missed it, VMware has released a number of product updates to address critical vulnerability in JRE. JRE is used in many products, so a wide range of products are affected. You can read the full bulletin here. The bulletin details which product version you need to be...

Critical ESXi 5.5 Patch Released

Hot off the presses is a critical patch for ESXi 5.5, dated March 7, 2015. This addresses two VSAN patches: Upgrading from VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201502001 (Build 2456374) or VMware ESXi 5.5, Patch Release ESXi550-201501001 (Build 2403361) to vSphere 6.0 might result in VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) Data...

vSphere 6.0 Installation Pt. 14: Install Windows vCenter

Now that we are pretty far into this series, we can finally install our Windows vCenter. This will leverage our external PSC, for maximum scalability. Depending on your environment size, you may need to scale up the VM's hardware specs for optimal performance. Consult VMware documentation for sizing guidance. In this exercise...

vSphere 6.0 Pt. 13: VMware Directory Svc Certificate

One of the lesser known SSL certificates in the vSphere 6.0 product is called the VMware Directory Service certificate. This is used by the built-in LDAP server for authentication and encryption. It's most an internal use only certificate, and one that some customers may not worry about replacing. In fact, per...

Publishing vSphere 6.0 VMCA Signing Certificate

As mentioned in my vSphere 6.0 installation series, you can configure the new VMCA to be a subordinate to your enterprise CA. This is great, and opens up new certificate management options for organizations that wish to use trusted SSL certificates. However, you may run into a situation where this...

vSphere 6.0 Pt. 12: PSC Machine Certificate

Back in Part 11 of this series we configured the VMCA to be a subordinate CA to our enterprise CA. This ensures that all certificates which get used by vCenter components are automatically trusted. But as previously mentioned, not all organizations can use the VMCA. The US Federal Government would...

vSphere 6.0 Install Pt. 11: VMCA as Subordinate

As mentioned in my vSphere 6.0 install part 3, VMware has introduced a new certificate option in this release. You can now make a built-in VMware certificate authority (VMCA) a subordinate to your enterprise CA. This is great news, as it will allow some automation of the certificate deployment process....