Providing Console Access to Portal Users

The Snow Software Commander Service Portal lets administrators provide various types of users with access to their virtual machines without have to create new VMware accounts. This articles describes the process by which you can grant users console access to appropriate VMs. To configure this access, perform the following simple procedures.

Providing Service Portal Access

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First, the user must be provided with access to use the Service Portal. You can create a new user directly in Snow Software Commander, or if you have integrated with a directory service, you can look up users and groups.

1. Login to Snow Software Commander and choose Users and Roles from the Configuration menu.
2. Click Add User.
3. To configure an Active Directory user or group, enter the User/Group Name and click the ellipsis to retrieve their information. Otherwise, fill out this field with the name for the new user you are creating as a Commander local user.
4. Enter and confirm the password for the account. Snow Software recommends using strong passwords.
5. Fill out the rest of the personal details for the user.
6. Leave Enabled checked if the user is immediately active, or clear the check to make the account active at a later time.
7. Use the Role menu to select a Service Portal Role which includes the Allow Open Console permission.
8. Click Add.

You can confirm which permissions are provided to the role by switching to the Service Portal Roles tab.
 

Important! Do not change users between Snow Software Commander roles and Service Portal roles. If an individual requires both, create two distinct accounts.

 

Setting Ownership on VMs

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Now that users have been granted access to the Service Portal, the next step is to make that they have been provided ownership to one or more VMs, which will allow them to see the VMs in the portal. Ownership can be granted to individuals or groups manually or using a policy. This section covers manually configuring ownership only. For more information on setting ownership using a policy, consult the Snow Software Commander User Guide.

 

To manually set ownership for a single VM:

1. Login to Snow Software Commander and select Operational, VMs and Templates, or Datastore from the Views?menu.
2. Right-click the VM and choose Lifecycle Management >Set Ownership.
3. The Set Ownership dialog opens. Enter the username or email of the local user or Active Directory/LDAP user or group in the text field and click Add.
   
4. Choose any organization from the list along with any user or group and click Assign IT Contact or Assign Primary owner to set these ownership levels, if you wish. All owners have access to connect to the console.
5. Click OK.
6. 
   
   To manually set ownership for multiple VMs:
7. Login to Snow Software Commander and select Operational, VMs and Templates, or Datastore from the Views menu.
8. Right-click an element above one or more VMs in the tree and choose Set Ownership on Children.
   
9. The Set Ownership dialog opens. Enter the username or email of the local user or Active Directory/LDAP user or group in the text field and click Add.
   
10. Choose any organization from the list along with any user or group and click Assign IT Contact or Assign Primary owner to set these ownership levels, if you wish. All owners have access to connect to the console.
11. Click OK.
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    Configuring Console Connections

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    Snow Software Commander provides administrators with the ability to configure credentials for console connections originating from the Service Portal. This means that service portal users do not have to be provided with vSphere access. Instead, you choose whether the connections will be made under the context of the account Snow Software Commander uses to connect to the managed system or another account you specify. You can also choose to have users challenged to provide credentials.

13.  Login to Snow Software Commander and select Operational, VMs and Templates, or Datastore from the Views menu.
14. Right-click the vSphere or SCVMM managed system containing the VMs to which you wish to provide console access and choose Configure Console Credentials.
    
15. In the Configure Console Credentials dialog, make the appropriate choices for your portal users in the Within the Service Portal.
16. Click OK.