New vCloud Air Security Roles

vCloud Air

Since the launch of vCloud Air, one of the things myself and others have been asking for especially on dedicated clouds is the ability to control access to the various Virtual Data Center objects within a single subscription.  As of today there is now the ability to do so!

NOTE:  These capabilities do not appear to be in the vCloud Air OnDemand Beta environment.  This is all available in the current vCloud Air production subscription offerings.

Starting with adding a new user you can see a few new fields.

add_user_new

The new breakdown allows separate control of the Infrastructure, Accounts, and network administration levels.  You will also notice the note about “assigned vDC’s, which now means you can per vDC assign or remove a user’s access to that object.  Just because you make a user a VI administrator does not mean now they have access to all vDC’s in your cloud.  You can then change that at the virtual data center level on the Users Tab.edit_vdc_new

You can see from the image above you can check boxes for access to this vDC.  What you can also notice is by default the Account Administrator role has access to all vDC’s.  So for that role you want a few folks but not everyone in your cloud.

If you have been waiting for vCloud Air to support more granular role based access so you can broker out dedicated cloud resources….well now you have it!  This is a great addition I know personally a few partners and customers alike have been waiting for.  If you have not logged into check it out, you should do so today.

About Chris Colotti

Chris is active on the VMUG and event speaking circuit and is available for many events if you want to reach out and ask. Previously to this he spent close to a decade working for VMware as a Principal Architect. Previous to his nine plus years at VMware, Chris was a System Administrator that evolved his career into a data center architect. Chris spends a lot of time mentoring co-workers and friends on the benefits of personal growth and professional development. Chris is also amongst the first VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDX#37), and author of multiple white papers. In his spare time he helps his wife Julie run her promotional products as the accountant, book keeper, and IT Support. Chris also believes in both a healthy body and healthy mind, and has become heavily involved with fitness as a Diamond Team Beachbody Coach using P90X and other Beachbody Programs. Although Technology is his day job, Chris is passionate about fitness after losing 60 pounds himself in the last few years.

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