VMware ESXi

The ESXi connector allows organizations to bring the user, permissions, and roles data in their stand-alone VMware ESXi systems to EmpowerID, where it can be managed and synchronized with data in any connected back-end user directories.

ESXi roles and permissions are treated as EmpowerID groups and memberships.

Once connected, you can manage this data from EmpowerID in the following ways:

Create new users
Edit user attributes
Delete users
Create new roles and permissions
Manage roles and permissions membership
Delete roles and permissions

Additionally, EmpowerID provides provisioning policies or (also known as resource entitlements or RETs) that allow you to automatically provision ESXi accounts for any person within your organization based on your policy requirements. For more information, see Provisioning Policies.

This topic demonstrates how to connect EmpowerID to ESXi and how to configure it to meet your organization's needs.

To create an account store for ESXi on the web

From the Navigation Sidebar, expand Admin, then Applications and Directories, and click Account Stores and Systems.
Click the Actions tab, and then click the Create Account Store action.
Select ESXi from the list of system types.
On the ESXi Settings page, provide the following values:
- Server — The IP address or FQDN of your ESXi Server
- Name — A name for the account store
- User Name — Your ESXi administrator or root user name
- Password — Your ESXi administrator or root user password
- Is Remote (Requires Cloud Gateway) — Select to indicate that the server is a cloud gateway.
Click Submit.
On the Cloud Gateway Servers page that appears, select the appropriate EmpowerID server and click Submit.
The Cloud Gateway Servers page displays only servers on which the EmpowerID Web Role service is running. If you do not see your server on the page, check the following:
- Ensure that the server has been assigned either the All-in-One Server or Web Front-End server role.
- Ensure that the EmpowerID Web Role service is running on the server.
(The LDAP Management Host Web Service is responsible for LDAP communications and is enabled by default on each server running the EmpowerID Web Role service.)
The Account Store is created and appears in the Account Stores grid and an associated Resource System appears on the Resource Systems tab.

To edit account store settings on the web

In the Navigation Sidebar, expand Admin, then Applications and Directories, and click Account Stores and Systems.
On the Account Stores tab, search for the account store you just created and click the link to go to its details page.
On the Account Store Details page, click the Edit button or the name of the account store.
In the edit view of the page, you can edit values in any of the enabled fields on several tabs as detailed in the tables below. Do not enable inventory until the end.

If you do not want all of the users and groups found during inventory to go in the same location in EmpowerID, we recommend Mapping EmpowerID Locations to External Locations before enabling inventory.
When you have finished editing, click Save.

Clicking the Save button on any of the tabs saves any changed settings on all of the tabs, so there is no need to save it after each tab.

Settings Tab

General section

Setting	Description
Option 1 Specify an Account Proxy	Click Edit to change the Domain (Server), User Name, and Password that was entered when the account store was created.
Option 2 Select a Vaulted Credential as Account Proxy	Click the drop-down arrow to select a vaulted credential to use as the account proxy.
Inventoried Directory Server	Click the drop-down arrow to select from any connected ESXi servers.
Is Remote (Cloud Gateway Connection Required)	Select to indicate that the server is a cloud gateway.

Authentication and Password Settings section

Setting	Description
Allow Password Sync	Toggle to allow EmpowerID to sync password changes discovered during inventory.
Queue Password Changes	Toggle to have EmpowerID send password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox for batch processing.
Password Manager Policy for Accounts without Person	Select a password manager policy to use for the account. If not selected, it uses the Default Password Manager Policy.

Provisioning Settings section

Setting	Description
Allow Attribute Flow	Toggle to allow attribute changes to flow between EmpowerID and the account store.
Allow Provisioning (By RET)	Toggle to allow EmpowerID to create users in the system that were created in EmpowerID.
Allow Deprovisioning (By RET)	Toggle to allow EmpowerID to delete users in the system that were deleted in EmpowerID.
Max Accounts per Person	Enter the maximum number of user accounts from this domain that an EmpowerID Person can have linked to them. This prevents the possibility of a runaway error caused by a wrongly configured Join rule. We recommended setting this value to 1 unless users commonly have multiple accounts and you want them to be joined to the same person.
Default Person Business Role	Select a default Business Role to assign provisioned people if none is specified.
Default Person Location	Select a default Location to assign provisioned people if none is specified.

Special Use Settings section

Setting	Description
RBAC Assign Group Members On First Inventory	This setting only pertains to Active Directory account stores.
Automatically Join Account to a Person On Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)	Toggle to allow EmpowerID to join newly discovered accounts to people during the inventory process if they meet the Join Rule as specified by the Custom_Account_InventoryInboxJoinBulk SQL stored procedure.
Automatically Create a Person On Inventory (Skip Account Inbox)	Toggle to allow EmpowerID to provision EmpowerID people for new accounts discovered during the inventory process if they meet the Provision Rule specified by the Custom_Account_InventoryInboxGetAccountsToProvision SQL stored procedure.
Show in Tree	Toggle to show the account store in the Locations tree.
Queue Password Changes on Failure	Toggle to have EmpowerID send password changes to the Account Password Reset Inbox only when the change fails.
Use Secure LDAPS Binding	Toggle to bind accounts with encryption.

Naming Fields section

Setting	Description
Application ID	If the account store is a one-to-one match with a Tracking Only application, enter the Application Resource GUID of the application. (This value is supplied automatically if you select the Create a New Account Directory option when creating a Tracking Only application.)
Tenant ID	Enter the Tenant ID, if supplied by the connection account. (AWS uses this.)

Inventory Tab

The Inventory tab is where you set scheduling and enable EmpowerID to take inventory of the external system. If you do not want all of the users and groups found during inventory to go in the same location in EmpowerID, we recommend Mapping EmpowerID Locations to External Locations before enabling inventory.

Setting	Description
Inventory Enabled	Select this after everything is set up to your liking to allow EmpowerID to inventory the system. The Inventory Job must be enabled for inventory to occur.
Inventory Schedule Interval: Start	Set the date on which to begin inventorying the system. By default, this is set to the creation date of the account store.
Inventory Schedule Interval: End	Set the date on which to stop inventorying the system. By default, this is set to ten years after the creation date of the account store, but since Run Indefinitely is selected by default, this value is ignored unless you clear that checkbox.
Inventory Schedule Interval: (units)	Select the units for the interval at which to run inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes. Once — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run inventory. Hour Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of hours between inventory runs in the Interval box below. Weekly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the day and time at which to run inventory. Minute Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of minutes between inventory runs in the Interval box below. Daily — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run inventory each day. Monthly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the months, days, and time at which to run inventory.
Run Indefinitely	Select to allow inventory to run indefinitely, ignoring the End date.
Interval: (number)	Set the number of units for the interval at which to run inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes.
Inventory Next Compilation Time	If you do not want to wait for the next regularly scheduled inventory run, specify the time and date to run it next.
Inventory Batch Size	Specify the number of records to process in each batch, to avoid hanging up your system when large numbers of records are processed. By default, this is set to 1,000 records.

Membership Tab

Group membership reconciliation is enabled by default to run every ten minutes, indefinitely.

Setting	Description
Enable Group Membership Reconciliation	Select to allow EmpowerID to reconcile group membership with the system. This is enabled by default.
Membership Schedule Interval: Start	Set the date on which to begin reconciling group membership with the system. By default, this is set to the creation date of the account store.
Membership Schedule Interval: End	Set the date on which to stop reconciling group membership with the system. By default, this is set to ten years after the creation date of the account store, but since Run Indefinitely is selected by default, this value is ignored unless you clear that checkbox.
Membership Schedule Interval: (units)	Select the units for the interval at which to run inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes. Once — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run reconciliation. Hour Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of hours between reconciliation runs in the Interval box below. Weekly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the day and time at which to run reconciliation. Minute Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of minutes between reconciliation runs in the Interval box below. Daily — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run reconciliation each day. Monthly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the months, days, and time at which to run reconciliation.
Run Indefinitely	Select to allow group membership reconciliation to run indefinitely, ignoring the End date.
Interval: (number)	Set the number of units for the interval at which to run rights inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes.

Rights Inventory Tab

The Rights Inventory tab is where you set scheduling and enable EmpowerID to take inventory of rights in the native system.

Setting	Description
Rights Inventory Is Enabled	Select to allow EmpowerID to inventory native rights in the system. This is disabled by default.
Rights Inventory Schedule Interval: Start	Set the date on which to begin inventorying rights in the system. By default, this is set to the creation date of the account store.
Rights Inventory Schedule Interval: End	Set the date on which to stop inventorying rights in the system. By default, this is set to ten years after the creation date of the account store, but since Run Indefinitely is selected by default, this value is ignored unless you clear that checkbox.
Rights Inventory Schedule Interval: (units)	Select the units for the interval at which to run rights inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes. Once — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run rights inventory. Hour Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of hours between rights inventory runs in the Interval box below. Weekly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the day and time at which to run rights inventory. Minute Interval — If you select this value, enter the number of minutes between rights inventory runs in the Interval box below. Daily — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the time at which to run rights inventory each day. Monthly — If you select this value, the Interval box below is replaced with a Times control that allows you to specify the months, days, and time at which to run rights inventory.
Run Indefinitely	Select to allow rights inventory to run indefinitely, ignoring the End date.
Interval: (number)	Set the number of units for the interval at which to run rights inventory. By default, this is set to 10 minutes.
Inventory Next Compilation Time	If you do not want to wait for the next regularly scheduled rights inventory run, specify the time and date to run it next.

Deleted Object Detection Tab

You can enable EmpowerID to detect deleted objects in the system. This tab applies only to Active Directory. Your Attribute Flow settings dictate which system takes precedence.

Setting	Description
Enabled	Select to enable deleted object detection. This is disabled by default.
Interval Minutes	Set the number of minutes for the interval at which to run rights inventory.
Threshold Max # of Deleted Objects	Specify the maximum number of deleted objects.

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