localadmin GID 1 removed from 4.1u1?

[admin]

Hey All,

On some of our ESXi 4.0 hosts, we have a localadmin group with group ID 1.

IIRC, that group is for adding local users to perform admin operations without giving them full root access.

I just built some ESXi 4.1u1 servers, and noticed that the localadmin group is gone.

Two questions:

1.  Is the localadmin group a default group in 4.0, or did someone add it to my hosts?  I think it is probably a default group.

2.  Is it really gone from 4.1u1, if so, what is the reason?  Is it just gone because AD authentication is popular?

Thanks,

Drew

[FranckRookie]

Hi Drew,

ESXi Configuration Guides for both 4.0 and 4.1 mention this group to be present as a default security group to grant users the right to access the local console (p.157 and 172 respectively). So it should be present... Try accessing ESXi directly with vSphere Client as mentioned in the guides.

Regards

Franck

[admin]

Franck,

I checked using the vSphere Client and didn't see that localadmin group.  I saw plenty of others though.

I will check again on Monday and report back.

Thanks,

Drew

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

VMware did removed the group between 4 and 4.1.   You can add a user to the root group or grant them  the Administrator role at the host level to grant DCUI access.

[admin]

Thanks for the confirmation Dave!

Drew