r/vmware • u/GoodDale • 14d ago
Help Request VMWare & View Assistance needed
/r/virtualization/comments/1vrszx3/vmware_view_assistance_needed/3
u/robconsults VMware Employee 14d ago
dude.
i cannot emphasize enough all the reasons you should not be running this in 2026, the least of which is that it's been out of support for over 14 years.. even just from the cyber risk insurance standpoint, i hope this environment is completely air-gapped from any external network
certificates weren't handled in windows until View 5 was released - you might have luck with this (that's also so old it only shows up on archive) : https://web.archive.org/web/20150815064529/https://blog.clearpathsg.com/blog/bid/205567/how-to-add-a-ssl-cert-to-vmware-view-4-5 ... but if you really have to deal with systems that are this old, there are other ways that should be accomplished at this point (least of which being completely isolated and behind some sort of jump server with actual modern security controls)
-1
u/GoodDale 14d ago
We are eventually going to have software developed in house that runs what is on these machines right now, so it can be used from any machine, this is a just a "keep it running until then" thing. Thanks much for the link.
1
u/ESXLab_com 11d ago
How to mitigate as much as possible...
The vCenter CA root certificate expires in 2026 after 10 years. This is the normal max life for a certificate (AFIK). Since VMware signed the certificate, you can't generate a new one so when the root certificate expires, that version of vCenter is done.
Next, you can always point vSphere Client directly at your ESXi hosts and do stand alone host management that way. This is not ideal because you can only perform host specific tasks. I don't know what happens to DRS and HA on vCenter when vCenter's certificate expires, but I would assume that clusters are probably non-functional.
The only way to bring back vCenter management is to install a 'more recent' version of vCenter. vCenter 6.0 will respond to Windows legacy vSphere Client as will ESXi 6.0 hosts - but it might only buy you a year or two more. If your vCenter configuration is simple, it is probably fastest to just do a fresh install of vCenter 6.0 and recreate your vCenter configs, add your ESXi 5.5 hosts to vCenter 6, and perform any other vCenter specific tasks needed to restore your configuration. Of course, you would need a vCenter 6.x license key to make that work for more than 60 days. You may also have challenges getting the Client Integration Plug-in working on anything newer than Windows Server 12 (which is also end of life)
vCenter 6.5 can talk to ESXi 5.5 but you can't use legacy Windows vSphere Client with vCenter 6.5. The only access is via Web Client - but Web Client when EOL when Adobe Flash / Flex died.
vCenter 6.0 is about 8 years past end of support so security issues will be significant. The only thing I can suggest is that do not allow any computers outside of your isolated management network access to vCenter. Even with that, you are taking big chances.
Other option is to pick a supported environment like Windows or Proxmox and just migrate everything to that. Proxmox has a great VM migration to to help you get the job done. That would be my best advice.
Good luck
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u/tom-slacker 11d ago
holy sh!t....vcenter 5.5.....i was using v6.5 and then upgraded my (ex)company's infra to v6.7 before i left.............and that was in 2022....
Don't you have any vmware support contracts left?
this is an anthrax timebomb waiting to explode....
godspeed, my friend...
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u/blud_13 14d ago
vCenter 5.5 went end of life in 2018 so nothing is coming to save you here, its all manual.
For View the cert lives on the Connection Server itself, not vCenter. Open MMC on that box and add the Certificates snap-in for the LOCAL COMPUTER account, not your user, thats why you saw nothing. Look in Personal > Certificates. The expired one will have the friendly name "vdm". Rename that friendly name to something else, then either import a valid cert and set ITS friendly name to vdm, or just restart the VMware View Connection Server service and let View generate a fresh self signed one. Restart the Security Server after and the agents follow.
Also, the 0x1002 is usually just the client refusing the expired chain, so once vdm is valid the PCoIP sessions come back on their own.
Reminder, RDP as a workaround is fine for a week but you are running a 2013 stack facing users. We deal with these boxes constantly, ping me if you get stuck.