How to make Virtual Machines specific to UserName or Profile?

[Acravens]

We have a lab of around 25 computers and a Dell 8925 Blade Server in the back running Esxi 5.0. I have the vSphere client installed on each workstation and have set up several user names for students. Everyone can log into the vSphere client just fine from their workstations. The issue I am having is that if one user creates a VM, any other user that logs into the vSphere client can see, access and modify that VM. I am looking for a way to make the VM's profile specific, so that users can only see and access the VMs that they have created. Is this possible with the vSphere Hypervisor or will I need to purchase a different package?

[mittim12]

How about grouping machines by folders and utilizing permissions to lock those folders down so that only the user can see them. 

[Acravens]

That thought had crossed my mind but I haven't quite figured out how to manipulate folder access rights in the vSphere client yet. If that's the way to do it though I will definitely give it a shot. I just thought there might be something I had overlooked that would enable this.

[chriswahl]

If you click on a folder in the VMs and Templates view, one of the tabs on the right is the Permissions tab. This is where you can set individual user permissions, which are recursive to objects within the folder. So, if you create a folder for each user and assign one user to each folder, you should be able to achieve your goal.

[Acravens]

Forgive my beginner level skills in this area. Is there a specific plug-in or setting that I need for VMs and Templates view or am I just not seeing it? I am using the free version of the vSphere Hypervisor.  In the client, I can click view at the top and Show VM's is checked, but Show Templates is greyed out. I do have a permissions tab, but I do not see anywhere to select a folder for adjusting persmissions. I have created folders in the Datastore through the Browse Datastore option.

[chriswahl · Accepted solution]

My mistake, I was thinking a licensed copy of vSphere with vCenter. In your case, the permissions would have to be set on the individual VMs.

Click a VM > Permissions Tab > Add Users

If you wanted to use Active Directory authentication instead of local host accounts, you can go to

Click on Host > Configuration > Authentication Services

And set up a relationship with your domain. You can then apply AD users/groups to VM Permissions.

Cheers

[Acravens]

Thanks for the help! I see what are you talking about with permissions for each VM. That will have to do for now. Hopefully I can talk the campus into letting me get a licensed version of vSphere with the vCenter server so I can do a bit more with it. Thanks Again!