--- name: vmwaresolutions-vrw-iam-vsphere title: vCenter identity and access management description: As of 17 July 2025, new automated installations of Red Hat® OpenShift® for VMware® are no longer available for new or existing deployments of VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instances. You can still use or delete your existing Red Hat OpenShift for VMware automated installations until 16 July 2026. The service will no longer be available from 17 July 2026. last-updated: 2025-10-30 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmwaresolutions?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # vCenter identity and access management {: #vrw-iam-vsphere} As of 17 July 2025, new automated installations of Red Hat® OpenShift® for VMware® are no longer available for new or existing deployments of VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instances. You can still use or delete your existing Red Hat OpenShift for VMware automated installations until 16 July 2026. The service will no longer be available from 17 July 2026. {: deprecated} **End of Marketing**: As of 31 October 2025, new deployments of VMware Solutions offerings are no longer available for new customers. Existing customers can still use and expand their active VMware® workloads on IBM Cloud®. For more information, see [End of Marketing for VMware on IBM Cloud](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vmwaresolutions?topic=vmwaresolutions-eos-vms&format=markdown). {: note} Inside IBM Cloud® for VMware® Regulated Workloads, multiple levels of access are available. The automation uses a set of user IDs to perform operations such as adding hosts, clusters, or storage to your VMware instance. ## vCenter user IDs {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-vcenter} The following user IDs are used to add an identity source, which is embedded by default, into vCenter. | User | User ID | Method | Description | |:---------|:-------------|:-------|:------------| | Privileged user | `root` | SSH | Used for VMware configuration such as setting up VMware high availability and creating distributed switches. Used post deployment to pair primary and secondary vCenter Server instances. | | IBM automation | `automation`@``root_domain`` \n (Active Directory user) | HTTPS | Used post deployment to add and remove hosts and clusters and to deploy and configure virtual machines (VMs) for add-on services. | | Privileged user | `cloudadmin`@`root_domain` \n (Active Directory user) | HTTPS | Created for customer use only. | {: caption="vCenter and Platform Services Controller user IDs" caption-side="bottom"} HTTPS is used for vCenter setup and configuration, and for VMware operations such as adding hosts, clusters, or storage for vCenter management of resources. ### vCenter access {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-vcenter-access} Privileged users are granted `cloudadmin` access to vCenter Server through the vCenter roles. ## NSX Manager user IDs {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-nsx} | User | User ID | Description | |:---------|:-------------|:------------| | IBM automation | `ibm_automation` \n (NSX® principal identity user) | Used post deployment to manage NSX VTEP IP addresses and to manage host and cluster configuration when hosts and clusters are added or removed. Also, used to manage ESG configuration for add-on services that require public network access for licensing, activation, or usage reporting. | | Privileged user | `admin` | Created for customer use only. | {: caption="NSX Manager user IDs" caption-side="bottom"} ## ESXi host user IDs {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-esx} | User | User ID | Description | |:---------|:-------------|:------------| | Privileged user | `ic4vroot` | Used post deployment to add more NFS storage, configure routes for that storage, and to run all server validation code. | | Privileged user | `root` | Created for customer use only. | {: caption="ESXi host user IDs" caption-side="bottom"} ## Active Directory user IDs {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-aduser} | User | User ID | Description | |:---------|:------------- |:------------| | IBM automation | `automation` | Used to add a host or a VM for service, and to set up Microsoft® Active Directory and DNS entries. | | Privileged user | `Administrator` | Default Windows® user | | Privileged user | `cloudadmin` | Default user for customer to access vCenter Server | | Privileged user | `cloudreadonly` | Read-only account for customer | {: caption="Active Directory user IDs" caption-side="bottom"} ## Microsoft Active Directory groups {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-adgroup} | User | User ID | Description | |:---------|:------------- |:------------| | Privileged user | `IC4v-vCenter` | vCenter Administration Group | {: caption="Microsoft Active Directory groups" caption-side="bottom"} ## Service user IDs {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-serviceid} | User ID | Description | |:-------------------------------------------|:----------- | | `prod-BigIP-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the F5 service. | | `prod-Caveonix-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the Caveonix RiskForesight service. | | `prod-FortigateVM-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the FortiGate Virtual Appliance service. | | `prod-KMIPAdapter-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the KMIP for VMware service. | | `prod-SPPlus-dynamicID-@domainName` | Deprecated - Used for installation and configuration of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus service. | | `prod-Veeam-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the Veeam service. | | `prod-HCX-dynamicID-@domainName` | Used for installation and configuration of the VMware HCX™ service. | {: caption="Service user IDs" caption-side="bottom"} where: * `dynamicID` is the 8 - 10 characters that are generated dynamically during the service installation. * `shortID` is the 5 characters that are generated dynamically during the service installation. * `domainName` is the domain name of your instance. ## Related links {: #vrw-iam-vsphere-related} * [IBM Cloud compliance programs](https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/compliance){: external} * [IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services API](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/hs-crypto)