Best Practices for Managing Certificates in VMware Cloud Foundation

In the realm of VMware Cloud Foundation, managing certificates efficiently is crucial to maintaining secure communication, establishing trust, protecting sensitive data, meeting compliance requirements, and responding to certificate-related incidents or vulnerabilities. Here’s a technical walkthrough of best practices for certificate operations within VMware Cloud Foundation.
Refer to the relevant product documentation

Certificate Operations Overview

Actively managing certificates ensures that your VMware Cloud Foundation environment remains secure and compliant. Here’s a detailed look at the best practices for various certificate-related operations:

Operation	When or How Often	Description
Replace self-signed certificates.	– After management domain deployment. – After VI workload domain deployment using SDDC Manager.	– Use the SDDC Manager UI for managing custom certificates for most management components. – Automate certificate management using the VMware Cloud Foundation API. – For PowerShell, use the open-source PowerShell Module for VMware Cloud Foundation. – Upload custom certificates to ESXi hosts manually or using the VMware.CloudFoundation.CertificateManagement PowerShell module. – Use custom certificates for all ESXi hosts if the management domain is deployed with external certificates. – Add externally replaced certificates to the SDDC Manager trust store.
Replace signed certificates from a trusted certificate authority.	– After management domain deployment. – After VI workload domain deployment. – When key length modification is needed. – When a certificate expires or is near expiration. – When the certificate authority or private key is compromised. – When a certificate is revoked.	– Follow the same guidelines as when replacing self-signed certificates.
Identify expiring certificates.	At least once a month.	– The SDDC Manager UI shows alerts for expiring certificates. – Monitor expiring certificates using custom dashboards, alerts, and notifications in VMware Aria Operations with the open-source Python module for VMware Cloud Foundation health monitoring. – Generate point-in-time health reports using the open-source PowerShell module for VMware Cloud Foundation health reporting.
Replace expired certificates.	When the certificate of a management component managed by SDDC Manager expires.	– For step-by-step replacement of expired certificates managed by SDDC Manager, refer to the official documentation. – For components not included in SDDC Manager automation, refer to the relevant product documentation.

Implementation Steps

1. Replace Self-Signed Certificates
   • Deploy Management Domain: Replace self-signed certificates after deploying the management domain.
   • VI Workload Domain Deployment: Replace self-signed certificates after deploying the VI workload domain using SDDC Manager.
2. Replace Signed Certificates
   • Trusted Authority: Replace signed certificates from a trusted certificate authority following the same guidelines as for self-signed certificates.
3. Identify and Monitor Expiring Certificates
   • Monthly Checks: Perform at least monthly checks using the SDDC Manager UI and custom monitoring tools.
4. Replace Expired Certificates
   • Step-by-Step Guide: Follow the detailed steps in the official documentation for components managed by SDDC Manager, and refer to the relevant product documentation for others.