My first question is can someone explain what the 'Enter Standby Mode' does when you right click on a Host in a cluster?
Also, we have defined a role for users that allow them very limited access to VM Guests, e.g. just power-off or power-on for after hours troubleshooting purposes. However, these users have the 'Enter Standby Mode' available on the right click menu on a cluster host. It is not defined in the properties of the role and I am concerned this could cause problems if anyone were to choose that option. Does anyone have any suggestions on why this available or more importantly how it can be removed.
We are currently at 2.5 Update 1 and the Hosts are 3.5 initial build.
Thank you.
Standby Mode powers off an ESX server and allows it to be powered back on again through Wake-on-LAN protocol triggered either manually or automatically by VirtualCenter.
i.e. you don't need to go the physical server to power it back on.
For more info see the section titled "Standby Mode" on page 72 in http://vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35/vi3_35_25_resource_mgmt.pdf
Regarding the permissions issue, what privileges do the users have and at what level are they applied?
The permissions are applied at the Host & Cluster level. The role has defined permissions of: GLOBAL - Cancel Task & Diagnostics + VIRTUAL MACHINE/INTERACTON - Power On, Power Off, Reset, & Console Interaction. These are the only permissions defined for this Role. Thank you.
Here's some more info. for your problem, which is also my problem too. I have a role that is only running at the Cluster level (no propagate), and on both esx servers (no propagate on each). The role has the following defined: Virtual Machine>Inventory>Create, Virtual Machine>Configuration>add New Disk, and Resource-->Assign Virtual Machine To Resource Pool. That's it.....and I also see "Enter Standby Mode" in the context menu. Furthermore, I removed all permissions and just gave myself read-only access to the esx server, and I still had the "Enter Standby Mode" in the context menu. Maybe if I click standby mode, it won't actually do anything. I don't have a test enviroment to perform this action in, and I'm certainly not going to do this in prod!!!
Another thing I did notice was that although the "Enter Standby Mode" is present in the context menu. It is not present under the commands section of the summary tab for my esx servers.
I'm running ESX Server 3.5 and Virtual Center Server 2.5 Update 3.
:smileyshocked:
For the record, I tested the "Enter Standby Mode" function on a test cluster using read-only credentials. While the options displays, and clicking it prompts you for the action to evacuate all virtual machines and continue, attempting to do so returns "access denied". Therefore it is safe to allow read-only access without worrying about such users accidentally putting a host in standby mode.
