The UserDirectory managed object allows a client application to obtain information about users and groups on a VMware vSphere server. Properties and results vary, depending on whether the server is a vCenter Server or an ESXi system.
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vCenter Server system. Domain controller, Active Directory, or local Windows account repository.
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ESXi host. Linux password file in /etc/passwd on the host.
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For example, vCenter Server user accounts can be managed in a Windows Active Directory server or domain controller from which the domainList property of UserDirectory is derived. For ESXi systems, the domainList property is empty.
UserDirectory allows you to obtain information about users and groups using the RetrieveUserGroups method. The method can obtain a list of all user accounts from the host, and can search for specific users or groups based on specific criteria to filter the results. You can search by user name, by group name, for an exact match, or for a partial string (substring).
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ESXi does not support local user groups, so this method will not return group information for a host. This method will return information about Active Directory groups.
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For ESXi systems, search returns all users from the passwd file. If this file contains Network Information System (NIS) or NIS+ users, RetrieveUserGroups returns these accounts as well.
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For vCenter Server, search is limited to the specified Windows domain. If the domain is omitted, the search is performed on local users and groups.
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Important Do not configure an ESXi system to use NIS or NIS+, unless it is acceptable to have NIS (or NIS+) user information available through the UserDirectory.RetrieveUserGroups API.
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