You can establish secure connections from App Volumes Manager to SQL Server and vCenter Server using SSL certificates. You can also add a vCenter Server root CA certificate in App Volumes Manager.

Establish a Secure SQL Server Connection

If the instance of App Volumes Manager that you have installed connects to an SQL server, you can change the default Windows ODBC settings and connect securely to App Volumes Manager.

Ensure that you have downloaded the SSL certificate on the SQL server instance and imported the certificate as a Trusted Certificate on to the machine where App Volumes Manager is installed . Change the ODBC settings on this machine.

For detailed instructions, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/316898.

Establish a Secure vCenter Server Connection

You can securely connect to a vCenter Server from App Volumes using an SSL certificate.

Prerequisites

  • Register a vCenter Server machine manager. See Configure and Register the Machine Manager.
  • Ensure that the vCenter Server you are connecting to has a domain SSL certificate. The certificate must be verified and accepted by App Volumes.

Procedure

  1. After you register a vCenter Server as a machine manager, verify the certificate details.
    If the certificate is not trusted or verified, the following messages are seen:
    • A window with details of the certificate (SHA1 fingerprint, period of validity) that is present in the vCenter Server.
    • A message at the top right corner: 
      Server error: SSL certificate is not verified and needs to be accepted to continue.
  2. Click Accept to accept the certificate.
    You can also log in to the vCenter Server as an administrator and verify the SHA1 code.
    The Machine Manager is successfully added after the certificate is verified.
  3. Click Certificate to view the certificate you added.
    If the certificate is changed on the vCenter Server after it has established a connection with App Volumes Manager, the Certificate not valid message is displayed when you log in to App Volumes Manager.
    Note: You also see this message when you upgrade App Volumes to the latest version.
  4. To validate the certificate again, select the vCenter Server under Machine Managers, click Certificate, and accept the certificate.

Results

You now have a trusted SSL certificate to connect to the vCenter Server.

What to do next

When you upgrade App Volumes from an older version to the latest version, you might have to manually accept the certificates to retain the connection to vCenter Server.

Add a vCenter Server Root CA Certificate in App Volumes Manager

To ensure that App Volumes Manager continues to trust the vCenter Server and remains connected even when the certificate gets renewed after the vCenter Server upgrade, you can add a root CA certificate that is used to sign your vCenter Server certificates in App Volumes Manager.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you have installed the required version of App Volumes Manager.
  • Download the trusted root CA certificate of the vCenter Server.
    • Convert the downloaded root CA certificate to cacert.pem file.

Procedure

  1. On the Machine Managers page, select vCenter in the Type field.
  2. Enter the credentials.
    The credentials must have appropriate permissions that allows the administrator to add the root CA certificate to App Volumes Manager.
  3. Copy the cacert.pem to C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Manager\config where the App Volumes Manager is installed.
    By default, App Volumes Manager is installed at C:\Program Files (x86)\CloudVolumes\Manager\.
  4. Restart the App Volumes Manager service.

Results

Adding the root CA certificate ensures that during the next vCenter Server upgrade, you need not accept the certificate again.