[dba-Tech] Struggle with import of certificate for VMware in Vista

Hi Jim et al

I should add to this, that you - of course - have to use the URL for the hostname of the VMware host as named (typically) during install like:

http://vmware04.somedomain.com:8222 or
https://vmware04.somedomain.com:8333

and not the IP address as the certificate is for the hostname only.

For this to work you must have an A record or CNAME entry at your DNS server - either at your domain host or (if you have this running) at your local DNS server. Or, if you don't wish to touch these, by editing your hosts file in the %systemroot%\System32\drivers\etc folder of your workstation:

      123.54.32.21     vmware04.somedomain.com          # vmware host 4

or, if you run the host locally:

      127.0.01      vmware04.somedomain.com          # vmware host 4

/gustav


>>> Gustav at cactus.dk 21-02-2010 16:51 >>>
Hi all

If you get tired of accessing the "VMware Infrastructure Web Access", everytime with a red warning about how dangerous this your own site is while it is not, you'll have to import the rui.crt certificate of the VMware hosting server into your certificate store, Trusted Root Certificate Authorities.

This is easy to do from within Internet Explorer. Just click the certificate info key icon, choose import and so on. No error messages and all looks fine.
The only problem is that even though no error messages, nothing happens really. The certificate does not import.

For a couple of days - on and off - I have been struggling with this googling countless pages of all kinds of info related to certificates, VMware, and Internet Explorer with zero results until I located this page:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/30768023/sbs-certificate-refuses-t.aspx 

The key tricks are two:

1. Run Internet Explorer as Administrator
2. Don't just import. Tick the "Show physical stores" tick box and select the "Local Computer" subfolder within the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities folder.

That worked.

/gustav