VMware View Security Server SSL Certificate Installation

Lee OsborneSenior Infrastructure Engineer
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I have recently deployed a VMware View 4.6 virtual desktop infrastructure and the last part of the project was to install the Security Server for remote users to access a virtual desktop from outside of the network.

The server installation was straight forward and everything worked fine but was installed with the default (unsigned) SSL certificate and required our own to be installed. Whilst the VMware KB article (1030298) explains how to do this, I found this method much easier.


Prerequisites

This tutorial presumes you already have a certificate. If you have a certificate which isn't in a PKCS#12/PFX format, you can convert it online:

https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-converter.html

Once you have converted it, or if you already have a PKCS#12/PFX format certificate, make sure the extension is .p12 (rename it if you have to).


Installation

On your Security Server, copy your .p12 certificate to the following folder (presuming you have installed to the default location):

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\sslgateway\conf\

In the same folder, create a new text document called 'locked.properties' (no quotes, no .txt extension). Open this file in Notepad and enter the following text:

keyfile=certificate_name.p12
keypass=password

Change the 'certificate_name.p12' to the filename of your certificate, and 'password' to the password you specified when converting or exporting the certificate originally. Save the file and exit Notepad.

Your certificate needs to be imported into the Java control panel by using the Java GUI. You can run this from the following command line:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware View\Server\jre\bin\javacpl.exe

Click the Security (Tab) > Certificates > Import > Browse. Navigate to the folder that you copied your .p12 certificate to above and select it. Enter the certificate password and finish the import.


Finish

At this point, you can either restart the whole server, or just restart the 'VMware View Security Server' service. Once the server has rebooted or the service(s) have restarted, browse to your Security Server URL and the certificate will be installed instead of the default unsigned certificate.

This worked first time and with no problems at all for me. It appeared to be a much better installation method than the official VMware KB article, of which I encountered a few problems along the way and ended up using this method instead.

Lee
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Lee OsborneSenior Infrastructure Engineer
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