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Controlling Which Virtual Machines and ACEs Run on a Host

Details

An ACE administrator can control which virtual machines and ACE instances can be run on a host on which an ACE instance is deployed.

Solution

An as ACE administrator, you can control which virtual machines and ACE instances can be run on a host on which you have deployed an ACE instance. This policy is not exposed in the Workstation ACE Edition graphical user interface. To change the policy, you must edit certain text files as described below.
 
To control which virtual machines and ACEs can be run on a host on which you have deployed an ACE instance, edit the following entries in the aceMaster.dat file. The aceMaster.dat file is located in the same directory as the configuration file (.vmxa ) for your ACE master.
  • allowVMs = "0" or "1"

    This entry corresponds to a host policy that controls whether or not non-ACE virtual machines can be run on the host. An entry of "1" (the default) indicates that all non-ACE virtual machines can be run on the host. An entry of "0" indicates that only ACE instances can be run on the host.

  • creatorID = "<id string>", default ""
    requiredCreatorID = "<id string>", default ""

    The creatorID and requiredCreatorID entries enable you to tag ACE instances you create with a specific identifier, and to set an identifier to run on a given host.

    For example,

    requiredCreatorID = "created by x"
    creatorID = "created by x"

These changes to the aceMaster.dat file tag all ACE instances created from this ACE master as "created by x" and specify that only ACE instances tagged with "created by x" can be run. You can set requiredCreatorID only once per host. Set the requiredCreatorID and creatorI D to the same value on an ACE master and install that ACE master first on each of your client hosts. Then for each additional ACE master intended to be installed on the same hosts, set creatorID to the same value. The ACE masters you create with your creatorID value can be installed on the same hosts, but ACE instances from ACE masters created by anyone else cannot run on those hosts.

Note that the ID string is in plain text in the aceMaster.dat file on the administrator's machine, but is hidden in the policy file to keep it secret. If you publish the policy set of an ACE instance to requiredCreator=youCantFakeThis and install it on a host, nobody but you (or others with access to the administrator files) will know what the creator ID is. Without knowing the requiredCreator policy setting, you are not able to create your own ACE instance that can run on the host.

Editing the aceMaster.dat File
 
The aceMaster.da t file should be edited only when the ACE master tab is not open in the Workstation ACE Edition interface. The aceMaster.dat file can be edited using any text editor. After you have finished editing the aceMaster.dat file, reopen the ACE master in the Workstation ACE Edition interface. If the ACE master is managed and the policy values have changed, then the "needs publishing" warning appears. The policies need to be published before the changes can take effect. Apply changes to standalone instances by using an update package.

Host Policies

Both the requiredCreatorID and allowVMs entries control host policies (the creatorI D policy is not a host policy). A host policy applies to the entire host to which the policy is deployed, not just the particular ACE instance. Another example of a host policy is the host network access policy.
 
Make sure to consider the following when you make changes to host policies:
  • Only one set of host policies can be deployed to a particular host. If a package contains host policies and the host already contains host policies from another ACE master, then the second package fails to be installed.

  • A package containing host policies requires administrator rights for installation.

  • Host policies for managed ACE masters are stored on the ACE Management Server and can be edited at any time. However, changes to host policies do not take effect on a host unless that host has a package installed from that ACE master that contains the changed host policies.

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1000326
  • Updated: Aug 14, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ACE
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ACE 2.0.x