Mastering VMware vSphere™ 4

9.2. Managing and Maintaining vCenter Server Permissions

The security model for vCenter Server is identical to that explained in the previous section for an ESX/ESXi host: take a user or group, and assign them to a role for a specific inventory object. The difference in the vCenter Server security model is the origin of the user or group objects. In the vCenter Server environment, the users and groups are actually Windows users and groups, but exactly which users will depend on whether your vCenter Server computer is a part of a domain. If the vCenter Server computer belongs to a workgroup, then the users and groups are stored in the local Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database on that server and are managed through the Local Users And Groups ...