Specifications

Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On
Identity sources allow you to attach one or more domains to vCenter Single Sign-On. A domain is a
repository for users and groups that the vCenter Single Sign-On server can use for user authentication.
An identity source is a collection of user and group data. The user and group data is stored in Active
Directory, OpenLDAP, or locally to the operating system of the machine where vCenter Single Sign-On is
installed. Upon installation, every instance of vCenter Single Sign-On has the Local OS identity source
identity source vpshere.local. This identity source is internal to vCenter Single Sign-On.
A vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user can create vCenter Single Sign-On users and groups.
Types of Identity Sources
vCenter Server versions earlier than version 5.1 supported Active Directory and local operating system
users as user repositories. As a result, local operating system users could always authenticate to the
vCenter Server system. vCenter Server version 5.1 and version 5.5 uses vCenter Single Sign-On for
authentication. See the vSphere 5.1 documentation for a list of supported identity sources with vCenter
Single Sign-On 5.1. vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 supports the following types of user repositories as identity
sources, but supports only one default identity source.
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Active Directory versions 2003 and later. vCenter Single Sign-On allows you to specify a single Active
Directory domain as an identity source. The domain can have child domains or be a forest root domain.
Shown as Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) in the vSphere Web Client.
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Active Directory over LDAP. vCenter Single Sign-On supports multiple Active Directory over LDAP
identity sources. This identity source type is included for compatibility with the vCenter Single Sign-On
service included with vSphere 5.1. Shown as Active Directory as an LDAP Server in the vSphere Web
Client.
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OpenLDAP versions 2.4 and later. vCenter Single Sign-On supports multiple OpenLDAP identity
sources. Shown as OpenLDAP in the vSphere Web Client.
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Local operating system users. Local operating system users are local to the operating system where the
vCenter Single Sign-On server is running. The local operating system identity source exists only in basic
vCenter Single Sign-On server deployments and is not available in deployments with multiple vCenter
Single Sign-On instances. Only one local operating system identity source is allowed. Shown as localos
in the vSphere Web Client.
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vCenter Single Sign-On system users. Exactly one system identity source named vsphere.local is created
when you install vCenter Single Sign-On. Shown as vsphere.local in the vSphere Web Client.
NOTE At any time, only one default domain exists. If a user from a non-default domain logs in, that user
must add the domain name (DOMAIN\user) to authenticate successfully.
vCenter Single Sign-On identity sources are managed by vCenter Single Sign-On administrator users.
You can add identity sources to a vCenter Single Sign-On server instance. Remote identity sources are
limited to Active Directory and OpenLDAP server implementations.
For more information about vCenter Single Sign-On, see vSphere Security.
Login Behavior
When a user logs in to a vCenter Server system from the vSphere Web Client, the login behavior depends on
whether the user is in the default domain.
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Users who are in the default domain can log in with their user name and password.
Chapter 3 Preparing for the Upgrade to vCenter Server
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