Active Directory Authentication on ESXi

ESXi hosts implement the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) framework, which can be configured to support authentication of Active Directory users. This feature is transparent to the CIM client. The client uses Active Directory authentication by supplying a user name and password that were previously entered into the Active Directory database.

System administrators can use the vSphere Client or the Web Services SDK to add an ESXi host to the Active Directory domain and to grant access rights to specific users. Hosts configured to use Active Directory authentication can also be configured to accept local users that have been granted access rights.