VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

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Managing the Global FIPS Compliance
Last Updated December 16, 2024

You can retrieve information about the current FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) settings of
vCenter Server
. You can also enable or deactivate the global FIPS compliance.
FIPS 140-2 is a U.S. and Canadian government standard that specifies security requirements for cryptographic modules. vSphere uses FIPS-validated cryptographic modules to match those specified by the FIPS 140-2 standard. The goal of vSphere FIPS support is to ease the compliance and security activities in various regulated environments.
The following table lists the operations that you can perform to manage the FIPS settings of your
vCenter Server
 system.
User Operations
Operation
Description
Get FIPS status
You can check whether the global FIPS compliance is currently enabled on the
vCenter Server
 system.
Manage FIPS status
You can enable or deactivate the global FIPS compliance on the
vCenter Server
 system.
When you enable FIPS compliance, some components might present functional constraints. For more information, see
vSphere Security
.
You can run FIPS management operations by using the
vSphere Automation
 SDK or sending an HTTP request.
For information about the HTTP requests that you can use to perform the user operations, see HTTP Requests for Global FIPS Compliance Operations.
REST
The following HTTP requests show the syntax that you can use to perform the available user operations.
  • Get FIPS status
    GET https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>:443/api/appliance/system/global-fips
  • Manage FIPS status
    PUT https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>:443/api/appliance/system/global-fips
    You can enable the global FIPS compliance by using the following request body.
    {
    "enabled": true
}
    You can deactivate the global FIPS compliance by using the following request body.
    {
    "enabled": false
}
    After you change the global FIPS compliance, the
    vCenter Server
     system reboots to apply the change.

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