Manipulating Users from the VMA

Adding users to an esxi host can be performed with one command from the VMA. The following command adds a user.

vi-admin@vma:~[esxi02.vclass.local]> vicfg-user -e user -o add -l user1 -p vmware1!
Created user user1 successfully.

That information can be viewed and verified from the esxi host by looking for the line containing user information in two files.

# grep user1 /etc/passwd
user1:x:1003:1003:ESXi User:/:/bin/sh

# grep user1 /etc/shadow
user1:$6$OS4AKKev$zW4osKuZW6YEBwJt03lEPIxaYaN4d5.Ai2gz79ToYNiEIZsdkmO7qW1aTjKCzhlNvgRTwb31dGwyS/RW.4Zh.:16351:0:99999:7:::

The users can be viewed from the VMA with the following command:

vi-admin@vma:~[esxi02.vclass.local]> vicfg-user -e user -o list

USERS

-----------------

Principal -: root

Full Name -: Administrator

UID -: 0

Shell Access -:1

-----------------

Principal -: dcui

Full Name -: DCUI User

UID -: 100

Shell Access -:0

-----------------

--- the rest of the output was removed ---

The following command associates a user to a particular role (read-only in this case).

vi-admin@vma:~[esxi02.vclass.local]> vicfg-user -e user -o modify -l user1 --role read-only

Updated user user1 successfully.

Assigned the role read-only

The user can be deleted if necessary with one command.

vi-admin@vma:~[esxi02.vclass.local]> vicfg-user -e user -o delete -l user1

Removed the user user1 successfully.