Remove certificates with weak signature algorithms in vCenter Server

During the vCenter Server 8.0 upgrade, I was faced with the following Pre-upgrade check error and wasn’t able to continue the upgrade. As of vCenter Server 8.0, certificates with SHA-1 signature algorithms are no longer supported and must be removed or replaced with a certificate that uses SHA-2 signature algorithm. In this post, I’ll show…

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Replace Default vCenter Certificate with a Free Let’s Encrypt SSL

On September 30, 2021, the DST Root CA X3 used to sign Let’s Encrypt’s R3 Intermediate CA Expired; therefore, some of the previous guides I’ve written and many that you will find online are no longer valid. This guide steps you through the process to install a Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate for vCenter that…

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Launch vCenter VCSA UI/CLI Installer on MacOS

MacOS from Catalina onwards, a security change prevents non notarized apps from running. To get around this, you need to exclude the VCSA Installer from the MacOS Security Gatekeeper by removing the metadata quarantine attribute “com.apple.quarantine” for the VCSA ISO. Before mounting the ISO, open Terminal and run the following command Now you may mount…

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Automate Free SSL Certificate Replacement for vCenter 7

In the past, I’ve posted some guides for replacing the default self-signed vCenter certificate with a free, trusted Let’s Encrypt 90 Day certificate. I recently started to look into generating the free SSL using an ACME client and stumbled across this PowerShell module Posh-ACME (Credit to Ryan Bolger – https://github.com/rmbolger for this module). I decided to…

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vCenter 7 Pre-Update Checks Error, Please Provide a Valid Version

I stumbled across this error when attempting to perform a Pre-Update check on my vCenter server. “Update 7.0.0.10400 not found. Please provide a valid update version” and “Update 7.0.0.10600 not found. Please provide a valid update version” This is a potentially a bug with Release 7.0.0.10300 vCenter Build 16189094. I decided to check the VAMI…

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Install Free SSL Certificate for vSphere 7 Home Lab

Last year I wrote the follow guide Install Free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate for your vCenter 6.7 Lab. The certificate was issued by Let’s Encrypt via a project called ZeroSSL. Recently ZeroSSL stopped using Let’s Encrypt, and started issuing the certificates themselves, therefore the process to generate the certificate outlined in that guide is no…

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