I'm trying to get a handle user authentication, both before and after SSO. The factory PDFs are kinda vague on some issues. I have the full set of ISOs for 5.5, but not 5.1 or 5.0. I've been trying to infer how things work for 5.0 and 5.1 from the Whats New publications and working backwards. Here is what I think are the available authentication options;
vSphere 5.0
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ESXi 5.0 host direct login; local database (/etc/passwd etc), Active Directory
vCenter Server Appliance; local database (/etc/passwd etc), Active Directory
vCenter Server Windows version; local database (SAM database), Active Directory
vSphere 5.1
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ESXi 5.0 host direct login; local database (/etc/passwd etc), SSO
vCenter Server Appliance; SSO only
vCenter Server Windows version; SSO only
SSO on VCSA; local database (/etc/passwd etc), Active Directory, LDAP
SSO on Windows Server; local database (SAM database), Active Directory, LDAP
I haven't found mention of LDAP in any of the official VMware docs except for layer 4 port numbers and Figure 2 of the SSO pdf, but I found a web page or two that claims use of OpenLDAP in a vSphere 5 virtual lab environment as an identity source.
So, is the above tabulation correct?
thanks