Handles vCenter authentication by issuing tokens to people and solutions, keeping a local domain (normally vsphere.local) and connecting to outside identity providers.
Also called SSO.
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Terms in this definition
- vCenter
Management software for VMs, clusters and ESX hosts. Each domain in VCF gets a dedicated one.
- Authentication
Checking an identity claim made by a person, device or app, for instance by asking for a password plus an extra factor. Authorisation only happens once this step has succeeded.
- LSDOU
The sequence in which Group Policy is processed: the local policy first, followed by site, domain and organisational unit policies. The nearest, last-processed setting takes effect unless Enforced or Block Inheritance alters that.
- Domain
A way of grouping workspaces by area of the business, in support of a data mesh approach. Items take on their workspace's domain, letting you filter the OneLake catalog by it, and certain tenant settings can be passed to domain admins; domains have no effect on access permissions.
- IDENTITY
A column property, written IDENTITY(seed, increment), that gives each new row the next number in a rising sequence. SCOPE_IDENTITY reports the latest value created in the current scope, and a rolled-back transaction still uses up the numbers it took.
Related terms
- Active Directory over LDAP
Lets vCenter Single Sign-On authenticate against Active Directory by speaking LDAP to it, ideally over LDAPS. With Integrated Windows Authentication gone from vCenter 9.0, either this or identity federation must be used instead.
- Identity source
A user and group directory, for example OpenLDAP or Active Directory over LDAP, that vCenter Single Sign-On authenticates against. Federating with an external identity provider is the alternative approach.
- machine solution user
Its certificate is what vCenter uses when exchanging SAML tokens with vCenter Single Sign-On, as one of vCenter's solution users. The name invites confusion with the machine SSL certificate, yet that certificate secures TLS and is unrelated.