VMware 4817V62 Administration Guide - Page 21

Chapter 1 vSphere Components Templates Virtual machines vApps A master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create and provision new virtual machines. A virtualized x86 or x64 personal computer environment in which a guest operating system and associated application software can run. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same managed host machine concurrently. VMware vApp is a format for packaging and managing applications. A vApp can contain multiple virtual machines. Access Privileges Components vSphere provides access control to managed objects by using user and group permissions and roles. Each user logs in to a vCenter Server system through the vSphere Client. Each user is identified to the server as someone who has rights and privileges to selected objects, such as datacenters and virtual machines, within the vSphere environment. The vCenter Server system has full rights and privileges on all hosts and virtual machines within the vSphere environment. The server passes on only those actions and requests from a user that the user has permission to perform. Access privileges affect which vSphere Client objects appear in the inventory. The server determines which access privileges and requests to allow based on the role assigned to the user or the user's group on each object. vCenter Server administrators can create custom roles with specific sets of privileges, as well as use the sample roles that vCenter Server provides. Users and Groups Roles Permissions Created through the Windows domain or Active Directory database or on the ESX/ESXi host. The server, vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi, registers users and groups as part of the assigning privileges process. A set of access rights and privileges. Selected sample roles exist. You can also create roles and assign combinations of privileges to each role. A permission consists of a user or group and a role assigned to a particular inventory object. vCenter Server Modules vCenter Server modules extend the capabilities of vCenter Server by providing additional features and functionality. Some modules are packaged separately from the base product and require separate installation. Modules and the base product can be upgraded independently of each other. VMware modules include: VMware Update Manager VMware Converter Enterprise for vCenter Server Enables administrators to apply updates and patches across ESX/ESXi hosts and all managed virtual machines. This module provides the ability to create user-defined security baselines which represent a set of security standards. Security administrators can compare hosts and virtual machines against these baselines to identify and remediate systems that are not in compliance. Enables users to convert physical machines, and virtual machines in a variety of formats, to ESX/ESXi virtual machines. Converted systems can be imported into the vCenter Server inventory. VMware, Inc. 21