This page describes how to update the reference to the vCenter certificate if it has changed, as your running admin cluster and user clusters must be informed of the change. This affects the vCenter.caCertPath field in the admin cluster configuration file and the user cluster configuration files for Google Distributed Cloud.
You can update the certificate references with the gkectl update command as described here.
Update the referenced vCenter certificate in the cluster configuration files
To update the running admin and user clusters to use the new certificate:
Retrieve the new vCenter certificate and unzip it:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page explains how to update the vCenter certificate reference in your admin and user clusters' configuration files after the vCenter certificate has changed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou must first retrieve and unzip the new vCenter certificate, then save the Linux certificate to a file named \u003ccode\u003evcenter-ca.pem\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUpdate the \u003ccode\u003evCenter.caCertPath\u003c/code\u003e field in both the admin cluster and user cluster configuration files to point to the new \u003ccode\u003evcenter-ca.pem\u003c/code\u003e file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUse the \u003ccode\u003egkectl update admin\u003c/code\u003e command to update the admin cluster and \u003ccode\u003egkectl update cluster\u003c/code\u003e command to update each user cluster with their respective configuration files.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003evCenter.caCertPath\u003c/code\u003e in admin workstation must be updated when creating a new admin workstation to reference the correct certificate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Update vCenter certificate references\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nThis page describes how to update the reference to the vCenter certificate if it has changed, as your running admin cluster and user clusters must be informed of the change. This affects the `vCenter.caCertPath` field in the admin cluster configuration file and the user cluster configuration files for Google Distributed Cloud.\n\nYou can update the certificate references with the `gkectl update` command as described here.\n\nUpdate the referenced vCenter certificate in the cluster configuration files\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nTo update the running admin and user clusters to use the new certificate:\n\n1. Retrieve the new vCenter certificate and unzip it:\n\n ```\n curl -o certs.zip https://VCENTER_IP_ADDRESS/certs/download.zip\n unzip certs.zip\n ```\n\n You can use the `-k` flag if you want to allow unknown certificates. This is to avoid any certificate issues you may have accessing vCenter.\n2. Save the Linux certificate to a file named `vcenter-ca.pem`.\n\n3. In your admin cluster configuration file, set [`vCenter.caCertPath`](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.11/how-to/admin-cluster-configuration-file#vcenter-cacertpath-field) to the path of your new `vcenter-ca.pem` file.\n\n4. Update your admin cluster configuration file:\n\n ```\n gkectl update admin --config ADMIN_CLUSTER_CONFIG --kubeconfig ADMIN_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG\n ```\n\n Replace:\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eADMIN_CLUSTER_CONFIG\u003c/var\u003e with the path of your admin cluster configuration file.\n5. In each of your user cluster configuration files, set [`vCenter.caCertPath`](/anthos/clusters/docs/on-prem/1.11/how-to/user-cluster-configuration-file#vcenter-cacertpath-field) to the path of your new `vcenter-ca.pem` file.\n\n6. For each of your user clusters, run gkectl update command:\n\n ```\n gkectl update cluster --config USER_CLUSTER_CONFIG --kubeconfig ADMIN_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n Replace:\n - \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eUSER_CLUSTER_CONFIG\u003c/var\u003e with the path of your user cluster configuration file.\n\nOnce the commands run successfully, the clusters will start using the new certificate.\n| **Note:** The `vCenter.caCertPath` field also appears in the admin workstation configuration file. If you want to create a new admin workstation, make sure that you edit the \\``vCenter.caCertPath` field to reference the current certificate."]]
