Thanks for the reply, I have PAM authentication configured and working on ESX, I created a test account without all numbers for this. The problem is I simply can't create a Linux user to match my AD user accounts since they are all numbers. I even tried creating a user with useradd then editing the passwd file with the all number username with no success, I documented the procedure below as I did it...
Login to service console
If youre adding a user that does not exist in the Service Console you must first add it. Linux user accounts are stored in the etc/passwd file, you can open this file with Nano to see all the accounts that are created. Alternately you can load the VI client and connect directly to the ESX server and click the Users & Groups tab to see user accounts.
To add a account type useradd <username> The username must match the samaccountname of the AD user. Alternately you can add the user using the VI client by clicking Add in the Users view.
Next you need to enable PAM authentication in ESX, you use the esxcfg-auth command for this like below:
o esxcfg-auth -enablead -addomain=addomain.com -addc=dcname.addomain.com -krb5realm=addomain.com -krb5kdc= dcname.addomain.com -krb5adminserver= dcname.addomain.com
o -enablead enables Active Directory authentication
o addomain sets the Active Directory domain
o --addc sets the Active Directory domain controller, use this multiple times to add domain controllers for redundancy
o krb5realm sets the Kerberos realm (AD domain)
o krb5kdc sets the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (Domain Controller)
o krb5adminserver sets the Kerberos Admin Server (Domain Controller)
This takes effect immediately, log back in to the console and you should be able to use your AD password for that account. If you run into difficulty you can check the /var/log/messages file for errors. Also ensure that your ESX server can resolve the FQDN of the AD server you entered above.
If you plan on logging in using the VI client directly to the ESX server you will first need to click on the Permissions tab in the VI Client and add a permission for the user.
If you wish to disable this type esxcfg-auth -disablead. Esxcfg-auth writes the configuration information to various files including /etc/krb5.conf
