Enabling HTTP or HTTPS connections between vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager and Hyper-V hosts

Products

• VMware Aria Suite
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

You can use an HTTP or HTTPS connection for the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server to communicate to the Hyper-V hosts, depending on whether you want to use a secure or non-secure connection.

This article provides information and steps on enabling either HTTP or HTTPS on Hyper-V hosts for use with vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x

Resolution

If you use the HTTPS protocol, all data exchanged between the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server and the Hyper-V host runs through an encrypted channel.

If you use the HTTP protocol, only the authentication of the Hyper-V host with the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server is encrypted, and all the management traffic data exchanged between the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager and the Hyper-V host runs through a non-encrypted channel.

Management traffic data are the operations you perform in the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager, such as powering on or creating virtual machines, adding Hyper-V hosts to the third-party hosts inventory, etc.

vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server communicates with Hyper-V hosts by using Microsoft Windows Remote Management standards and protocols. For more information, see the About Windows Remote Management (Windows) MSDN article.

For more information on configuring Hyper-V hosts for remote management, see the Configure Hyper-V Server 2012 for Remote Management TechNet article.

Note: The preceding links were correct as of January 23, 2014. If you find a link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

Enabling HTTP on a Hyper-V host

You must enable HTTP on the Hyper-V host to enable communication with the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server. By default, there are no Windows Remote Management listeners defined on a Hyper-V host. To enable the communication via HTTP between the Hyper-V host and the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server, you must define a Windows Remote Management listener.

To enable HTTP on a Hyper-V host:

1. Log into the Hyper-V host.
2. Open a command line and run the command:
   
   winrm quickconfig
   
   
3. HTTP is now enabled on the Hyper-V host.

Enabling HTTPS on a Hyper-V host

You must enable HTTPS on the Hyper-V host to enable communication over a secure connection with the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server. By default, there are no Windows Remote Management listeners defined on a Hyper-V host. To enable the communication via HTTPS between the Hyper-V host and the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager server, you must define a Windows Remote Management listener.

Prerequisites

• Verify that you have the Web Server (IIS) role enabled with the Internet Information Services ManagementConsole components.

To enable HTTPS on a Hyper-V host:

1. Log into the Hyper-V host.
2. Click Start > Administrative Tools, and click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
3. From the Connections tree, click the node that corresponds to the Hyper-V host and double-click Server Certificates.
4. In the Actions pane, click Create Self-Signed Certificate.
5. In the Create Self-Signed Certificate dialog box, enter a name for the certificate and click OK.
6. In the Server Certificates pane, right-click the name of the newly created self-signed certificate, and click View.
7. On the Details tab, click Thumbprint and copy the certificate thumbprint.
8. Open a command line and run the command:
   
   winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTPS @{CertificateThumbprint="thumbprint"}
   
   Where thumbprint is the certificate thumbprint of the self-signed certificate you copied in the previous step.
   
   
9. HTTPS is now enabled on the Hyper-V host.