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Auditing/Logging vCenter Server authentication & authorization activities

06.19.2017 by William Lam // 1 Comment

Recently, I have seen an increase in the number of requests from our field and customers inquiring about logging various vCenter Server authentication and authorization activities. The topics vary from identifying which log files contain which activities to to why some of this information is not available in the vCenter Server Events UI or why they are available else where. In most of these cases, customers were also looking for a way to forward these activities to their remote syslog infrastructure for auditing and tracking purposes whether that is using vRealize Log Insight (which all vSphere customers get 25 free OSI licenses!) or some other logging solution.

Having explored this topic lightly in the past and given the amount of interests, I thought I would dive a bit deeper and look at some of the common authentication and authorization workflows and provide examples of what the log entries look like and where you can find them. However, before jumping right in, I think is is worth spending a few minutes looking at the history of authentication (commonly referred to as AuthN) and authorization (commonly referred to as AuthZ) for vCenter Server and where we had started from and where we are at today to give you the full context.

UPDATE (04/08/19) - Please take a look at this blog post here for all new auditing enhancements in vSphere 6.7 Update 2 which simplifies the consumption of vCenter and vCenter SSO auditing events.

History of vCenter Server AuthN/AuthZ

Prior to vSphere 5.1, vCenter Server handled both Authentication (AuthN) and Authorization (AuthZ). As a Client, you would connect directly to vCenter Server and the AuthN service will verify who you are whether that is a local account on the OS or an Active Directory user which required vCenter Server to be joined to your AD Domain. Once you have been authenticated, the AuthZ service will then take over and verify the privileges you have been assigned to perform specific operations within vCenter Server.


In vSphere 5.1, a new service was introduced called Single Sign-On (SSO) which now takes over for AuthN services from vCenter Server. Once authenticated, it will then allow you to connect to the vCenter Server which then handles AuthZ activities


Although it may not be apparent, one major implication is where are successful and failed authentications being logged? In the past, these would reside within vCenter Server since it handled both AuthN/Authz activities, vCenter Server even included specific authentication Events that can then be seen using the UI and/or API. However, with SSO in the picture, authentication is no longer in vCenter Server but with SSO. This is why when you have a failed login using the vSphere Web Client (Flex/H5) UI it does not show up in vCenter Server and it because the logging is done but within the SSO service (which now resides in the Platform Services Controller for more recent vCenter releases).

[Read more...]

Categories // Automation, Security, vSphere 6.0, vSphere 6.5, vSphere Web Client Tags // authentication, AuthN, authorization, AuthZ, platform service controller, psc, rsyslog, syslog, vCenter Server, vcenter server appliance

Maximum number of vCenter Servers per Single Sign-On (SSO) Domain

03.29.2017 by William Lam // 9 Comments

This particular question and its variations have been raised quite a bit lately by our field and customers. For me, this was an opportunity to see if we can provide some additional clarification and help explain some of the nuances that may have been causing some of the confusion around the supported maximums for both vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller (PSC).

In the vSphere 6.5 Configuration Maximum, there are three specific maximums that helps us answer our question on the maximum number of vCenter Servers per vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) Domain. I will go through each of the maximums and provide some additional context that will help us derive the answer to our question.

The first is the "Linked vCenter Servers" which defines the maximum number of vCenter Servers that can be supported in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) configuration. What is interesting about this particular maximum is that it actually answers the majority of our question. By definition, an ELM consists of a single SSO Domain. This then means that you can only have a maximum of 10 vCenter Servers per SSO Domain.

vCenter Server Maximum

Configuration Maximum
Linked vCenter Servers (w/External PSC) 10
Linked vCenter Servers (w/Embedded PSC) 15

Note: As of vSphere 6.7, you can have up to 15 Embedded VCSA's within an ELM.

The second is the "Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain" which defines the maximum number of PSC's that can be part of a single SSO Domain, pretty straight forward. The third is the "Maximum PSCs per site behind a load balancer" which just adds an additional constraint when using a load balancer with your PSCs.

Platform Services Controller Maximum

Configuration Maximum
Maximum PSCs per vSphere Domain 10
Maximum PSCs per site behind a load balancer 4

[Read more...]

Categories // vSphere 6.0, vSphere 6.5 Tags // Enhanced Linked Mode, platform service controller, psc, sso, vCenter Server, VCHA, vSphere 6.0, vSphere 6.5

How to split vCenter Servers configured in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM)?

03.16.2017 by William Lam // 22 Comments

An interesting question that came up on the VMTN forum the other day (thanks to Andreas Peetz for sharing via Twitter) was how to split two vCenter Servers configured in an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM)? Due to an organization changes in the customers environment, they needed to separate out their two vCenter Servers and run them independently of each other. Although this may sound like an rare event, I have actually seen this use case come up several times now which maybe from a business unit restructuring, spinning out or selling off company assets which then requires the customer to split their existing vCenter Servers that is configured with ELM.

Below is a diagram depicting an example where the original source environment (left) which is composed of two vCenter Servers and two external Platform Services Controller (PSC) configured in an ELM and the desired destination environment (right) which are two separate vCenter Server instances no longer configured in ELM.


The solution to this problem is actually pretty straight forward and leverages the existing vCenter Server and/or Platform Services Controller (PSC) "decommission" workflow. Rather than decommissioning the nodes, we are just simply keeping them around. Below are the instructions on how to achieve this outcome.

UPDATE (05/31/22) - I was recently made aware of the following VMware KB 2106736 article that provides official guidance for splitting/unregistering your vCenter Server from ELM. This should be followed as the officially supported method

UPDATE (01/28/19) - As of vSphere 6.7 Update 1, splitting an Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) configuration is now supported by using the repointing workflow provided by the enhanced cmsso-util tool.

Disclaimer: Although this solution uses an existing supported workflow, this particular use case has not been tested by VMware. As such, this would not be officially supported by VMware until the appropriate testing has been done by our Engineering teams. One potential option in the short term if you are looking for support from VMware is to file an RPQ request through your VMware account team.

[Read more...]

Categories // vSphere, vSphere Web Client Tags // cmsso-util, dir-cli, Enhanced Linked Mode, platform service controller, vCenter Server, vcenter server appliance, vdcrepadmin, vSphere

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Author

William Lam is a Senior Staff Solution Architect working in the VMware Cloud team within the Cloud Infrastructure Business Group (CIBG) at VMware. He focuses on Cloud Native technologies, Automation, Integration and Operation for the VMware Cloud based Software Defined Datacenters (SDDC)

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