Exporting and Restoring vCenter 8.x Permissions Before Breaking Enhanced Linked Mode

Breaking Enhanced Linked Mode is one of those changes where the technical command is not the hardest part. The hard part is making sure administrators, service accounts, and external products can still log in and do their jobs after the vCenters no longer share the same SSO domain. In this post I will walk through a repeatable way to export and restore vCenter 8.x RBAC data before splitting Enhanced Linked Mode. The focus is on three permission layers: ...

June 30, 2026 · Cosmin Trif

Managing the ESXi SSH Server Firewall Exception Across Hosts with PowerCLI

VMware PowerCLI can manage the firewall exceptions on ESXi hosts through vCenter Server. The commands in this guide change the SSH Server firewall exception on ESXi; they do not configure the firewall of the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). Enabling this exception permits inbound SSH traffic through an ESXi host’s firewall. It does not start the SSH service. Opening SSH on many hosts also increases the management-plane attack surface, so target only the hosts that require access and disable the exception as soon as the work is complete. ...

March 21, 2024 · Cosmin Trif