Authentication and authorization govern access. vCenter Single Sign-On supports authentication, which means it determines whether a user can access vSphere components at all. Each user must also be authorized to view or manipulate vSphere objects.
vSphere supports several different authorization mechanisms, discussed in Understanding Authorization in vSphere. The focus of the information in this section is how the vCenter Server permission model works and how to perform user management tasks.
vCenter Server allows fine-grained control over authorization with permissions and roles. When you assign a permission to an object in the vCenter Server object hierarchy, you specify which user or group has which privileges on that object. To specify the privileges, you use roles, which are sets of privileges.
Initially, only the administrator user for the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, [email protected] by default, is authorized to log in to the vCenter Server system. That user can then proceed as follows:
Add an identity source in which users and groups are defined to vCenter Single Sign-On. See the Platform Services Controller Administration documentation.
Give privileges to a user or group by selecting an object such as a virtual machine or a vCenter Server system and assigning a role on that object for the user or group.

Before you can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with the vSphere Web Client, you must verify that the service is enabled and running.
Procedure
Log in to your vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Web Client.
On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Administration.
Under System Configuration click Services.
Select ImageBuilder Service, click the Actions menu, and select Edit Startup Type.
On Windows, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is disabled. In the Edit Startup Type window, select Manual or Automatic to enable Auto Deploy.
On the vCenter Server Appliance, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service by default is set to Manual. If you want the service to start automatically upon OS startup, select Automatic.
If you select the manual startup type, you must start the service manually upon OS startup every time you want to use the service.
(Optional) Click the Start the service icon.
(Optional) If you want to use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with thevSphere Web Client, log out of the vSphere Web Client and log in again.
The Auto Deploy icon is visible on the Home page of the vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites
You must have an FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP server up and running with sufficient disk space to store the backup.
Dedicate a separate folder on your server for each file-based backup.
Procedure
In a Web browser, go to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, https://appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN:5480.
Log in as root.
In the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, click Summary.
Click Backup.
The Backup Appliance wizard opens.
Enter the backup protocol and location details.
Option
Description
Backup protocol
Select the protocol to use to connect to your backup server. You can select FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP.
For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service. For SCP, the path is absolute to the remote systems root directory.
Backup location
Enter the server address and backup folder in which to store the backup files.
Port
Enter the default or custom port of the backup server.
User name
Enter a user name of a user with write privileges on the backup server.
Password
Enter the password of the user with write privileges on the backup server.
(Optional) Select Encrypt Backup Data to encrypt your backup file and enter a password for the encryption.
If you select to encrypt the backup data, you must use the encryption password for the restore procedure.
Click Next.
On the Select parts to backup page, review the data that is backed up by default.
(Optional) Select Stats, Events, and Tasks to back up additional historical data from the database.
(Optional) In the Description text box, enter a description of the backup and click Next.
On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the backup and click Finish.
The Backup Progress window opens and indicates the progress of the backup operation.
After the backup process finishes, click OK to close the Backup Progress window.
Results
You successfully created a backup file of the vCenter Server Appliance.