Using a User Account for Running vCenter Server

You can use the Microsoft Windows built-in system account or a user account to run vCenter Server. With a user account, you can enable Windows authentication for SQL Server, and it provides more security.

The user account must be an administrator on the local machine. In the installation wizard, you specify the account name as DomainName\Username. You must configure the SQL Server database to allow the domain account access to SQL Server.

The Microsoft Windows built-in system account has more permissions and rights on the server than the vCenter Server system needs, which can contribute to security problems.

Important: If the vCenter Server service is running under the Microsoft Windows built-in system account, when using Microsoft SQL Server, vCenter Server supports only DSNs with SQL Server authentication.

For SQL Server DSNs configured with Windows authentication, use the same user account for the VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices service and the DSN user.

If you do not plan to use Microsoft Windows authentication for SQL Server or you are using an Oracle database, you might still want to set up a local user account for the vCenter Server system. The only requirement is that the user account is an administrator on the local machine and the account must be granted the Log on as a service privilege.

Note: Starting with vSphere 6.5, the vCenter Server services are not standalone services under Windows SCM, instead they run as child processes of the VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service.