Objective 1.3: Secure VMware ESX/ESXi

The security of an ESX/ESXi is made easier by the fact that both products are very secure out of the box. That is not to say that they cannot be made even more secure depending on circumstances. ESX, because it has a Service Console, provides several options for the firewall, again depending on what services are enabled. ESXi doesn’t have much to configure, but we’ll take a look at Lockdown mode as a way to protect the root account.

The topics addressed in Objective 1.3 include:

• Default security settings on an ESX 4.0 server
• Working with the Service Console firewall
• Administering user and group accounts.
• Client connectivity options when working with the Service Console