VMware GSX 3 - Manual (Page 117)

C H A P T E R 4 Managing Virtual Machines and the VMware GSX Server Host
117
Authenticating Users and Running Virtual Machines on a GSX
Server for Windows Host
Every time you connect to a GSX Server for Windows host with the VMware Virtual
Machine Console or VMware Management Interface, the VMware Authorization
Service requests a username and password, then authenticates only valid users.
Once you are authenticated, the console starts or the management interface’s Status
Monitor page appears. What you can now do with a virtual machine is based on your
permissions. See
Understanding Permissions and Virtual Machines on page 114 .
Each virtual machine runs as one of the following three user accounts:
• The user who powers on the virtual machine — the virtual machine runs as
the account of the user who powered on the virtual machine until the virtual
machine is powered off. Other users can connect to the virtual machine but it
still runs as the user who powered on the virtual machine.
• The local system account — the virtual machine runs as the local system
account. You can enable this option only if you are logged on to the host
operating system as an Administrator.
• A specific user account — the virtual machine runs as the user account
specified in the New Virtual Machine Wizard or the virtual machine settings
editor. This account must be able to access the GSX Server host.
The user account is specified when you create the virtual machine and you can
change it in the virtual machine settings editor.
Understanding Permissions and User Accounts
If the virtual machine is configured to run as the user who powers it on, the user must
have Read and Write permissions to the virtual machine files, such as the
configuration file, virtual disk files and snapshot files. The user account must be an
administrator account if the virtual machine needs to access devices like physical
disks, USB controllers and generic SCSI devices.
An easy way to allow this user to access a virtual machine is to set the permissions for
the directory containing the virtual machine files and let the user inherit the rights for
that directory.
If another user connects to this virtual machine while it is running, that user only
needs permissions for the configuration file.
For virtual machines configured to run as a specific user account or run as the local
system user, any user connecting to the virtual machine needs permissions for the
configuration file only.