What is the difference between VRM Guest agent and Boot strap agent ?? Do we need Darwin account in the template for successfull deployemtn ??

[Ravindra01]

Hello All,

    There is local user account called Darwin in the reference server( Golden Image), from where we will create template.

    As part security compliance , we were asked to remove the local account. When I searched, got to know it used by Boot strap agent when preparing for the template user will be created.

    There is confusion in vRM guest agent and Bootstrap agent what is the difference between both the agents and how exactly these agents are used during the server provisioning ??

     If I remove the Darwin agent, will the server provisioning fail ??

Thank you in Advance !!

[daphnissov]

What version of vRA are you using?

[Ravindra01]

vRA 7.2

[daphnissov]

In 7.2 you have the ability to not use the local user Darwin, which is the recommendation. You'll have to reinstall your guest agent, but when you use the installer script choose the "localSystem" option. The guest and software bootstrap agents will then run as System and you can eliminate the darwin user account.

[Ravindra01]

Thank you for your response.

If I remove the Darwin account from reference server, there will be any issues for the server deployments ?? and want to understand the how the scripts which are added in blue prints will be executed ??

What is the functionality of vRM Guest Agent and Boot strap ??

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

If I remove the Darwin account from reference server, there will be any issues for the server deployments ?? and want to understand the how the scripts which are added in blue prints will be executed ??

Yes, if you don't re-install the agents on your templates with the localSystem option, it will cause the deployments to fail if you just delete the darwin account.

What is the functionality of vRM Guest Agent and Boot strap ??

The guest agent (gugent) serves to run certain actions with help to customize the configuration of the deployed machine including things like disk changes, network changes, scripts, etc. The software bootstrap agent is used to invoke software components (vRA Enterprise feature only).