ESX Root User Cannot Reboot Server

Question

I have a machine running ESX v3.5 and the root user is unable to perform tasks like shut down the esx server, create new VM's, manage roles, pretty much everything except for starting and stopping VM's.

How do I (re)set these permissions?

UPDATE: I found this forum post. Am thinking of trying out the process described in the last post in that thread.

Answer 1

Seems like someone removed root's access on the VIC, you're going to need to go into the VIC with a user with Administrator permissions. The click on your host, go to the Permissions tab and change root back to administrator.

I half remember that there is a way to do this on the console, but I'm having trouble finding it right now.

---

EDIT: Found the console stuff
Ok, yep you can fix this on the console.

You'll need to edit the file /etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml from the console.

You should seen something like this:

<ConfigRoot>
  <ACEData id="10">
    <ACEDataEntity>ha-folder-root</ACEDataEntity>
    <ACEDataId>10</ACEDataId>
    <ACEDataIsGroup>false</ACEDataIsGroup>
    <ACEDataPropagate>true</ACEDataPropagate>
    <ACEDataRoleId>-1</ACEDataRoleId>
    <ACEDataUser>root</ACEDataUser>
  </ACEData>
<... SNIP Other USERS ... >
<... SNIP Possible custom roles ...>
</ConfigRoot>

The piece you are going to want to change is the "ACEDataRoleId" (-1 is Administrators)

you might have to restart the hostd service with service mgmt-vmware restart after your changes.