VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Authenticate to
vCenter Server
 with
vCenter Single Sign-On
 Credentials

You can use your
vCenter Single Sign-On
 credentials with basic authentication to establish a session with a
vCenter Server
 system.
To perform this task, you must have:
  • The IP address or FQDN of your
    vCenter Server
     system
  • Valid
    vCenter Single Sign-On
     user name and password
The single-factor basic authentication is the simplest method to authenticate to
vCenter Server
. You connect to the
vSphere Automation
 API endpoint with your
vCenter Single Sign-On
 user name and password. The
vSphere Automation
 endpoint checks whether the user credentials are present in vmdir, a
vCenter Single Sign-On
 component. On success, the system returns a session identifier that you can use for subsequent API calls.
  1. Call the interface with the base-64 encoded value of your
    vCenter Single Sign-On
     user name and password separated by a colon (
    username:password
    ) in the authorization header.
    POST https://<
    vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn
    >/api/session
Authorization: Basic <
    username:password
    >
    On success (status code 201), the system returns a session identifier. For example,
    "a5adf880fc8e1e2944a541a4c7d74465"
    .
  2. To authenticate subsequent API calls, pass the session identifier as a request header.
    vmware-api-session-id: <
    session_ID
    >
    VMware encourages you to refrain from using basic authentication and adopt token-based authentication, as it is more secure and provides more flexibility.

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