Active Directory users with customized UPN user names cannot use Windows session credentials to log into the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot log into the vSphere Web Client.
• You cannot log into the vSphere Client.
• vCenter Single Sign-On is installed on a Windows system.
• The Use Windows Session Authentication option is selected during login.
• Attempting to log in using the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client fails with the pop-up message:
  
  Provided credentials are not valid

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere Web Client 5.1.x
VMware vSphere Web Client 5.5.x

Cause

Active Directory users might have a custom suffix in their UPN instead of using the domain name as the suffix. For example, the user name [email protected] can be customized to be [email protected].

Active Directory users with these custom suffixes cannot log into the vSphere Web Client using Windows session credentials when vCenter Single Sign-On is installed on a Windows system.

In vSphere 5.1, when using the Active Directory Identity Source, you may see:

• For example, in the imsRuntimeAudit.log file located in C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\sso server\, you see messages similar to:
  
  YYYY-DD-MM <time>, 1ed8d6200100007f06edfadabc610d7a,05c709320100007f21453d728d1866b0,,
127.0.0.1,STS_TOKEN_ISSUE_EVENT,40001,FAIL,AUTHN_PRINCIPAL_NOT_FOUND,,SYSTEM,SYSTEM,
SYSTEM,testuser@domain,SYSTEM,SYSTEM,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
YYYY-DD-MM <time>,23105af20100007f2e3cf0f6af381ceb,05c709320100007f21453d728d1866b0,
,127.0.0.1,AUTHN_LOGIN_EVENT,13002,SUCCESS,AUTHN_METHOD_SUCCESS,
1e0233bc0100007f67a934d5b646d074xE67y40+yxP,2263ca5e0100007f336bd4205d18be85,
1ff067280100007f2cff84210a4226df,000000000000000000001000e0011000,testuser,testuser,
vmuser,,,,,,000000000000000000001000f0022001,LDAP_Password,,,,,,,,,,,,,</time></time>
  
  Later on, you see the session returns [email protected] instead of testuser@domain. This indicates that the domain name is not following UPN standards, and can cause the session to not be accepted by the vSphere client or web client.
  
  
• Following the session, you notice the domain name change:
  
  YYYY-DD-MM <time>,20e255360100007f66b9915ad8b4edaf,05c709320100007f21453d728d1866b0,,
127.0.0.1,STS_TOKEN_ISSUE_EVENT,40001,SUCCESS,,,
"CN=testuser,OU=DomainAdmins,OU=IS,OU=UserAccounts,DC=secure,DC=vmware,DC=com",
1ff067280100007f2cff84210a4226df,000000000000000000001000e0011000,[email protected],
Username,vmuser,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
YYYY-DD-MM <time>, 7a19d5af0100007f1df41e934778df5c,05c709320100007f21453d728d1866b0,,127.0.0.1,
AUTHN_LOGIN_EVENT,13002,SUCCESS,AUTHN_METHOD_SUCCESS,788d13750100007f0d8a101759ccde14O1GgM8kpOMe,
2263ca5e0100007f336bd4205d18be85,1ff067280100007f2cff84210a4226df,000000000000000000001000e0011000,
testuser,testuser,vmuser,,,,,,000000000000000000001000f0022001,LDAP_Password,,,,,,,,,,,,,
YYYY-DD-MM <time>,0106993b0100007f36c0ae9603868840,05c709320100007f21453d728d1866b0,,127.0.0.1,
STS_TOKEN_ISSUE_EVENT,40001,SUCCESS,,,2263ca5e0100007f336bd4205d18be85,
1ff067280100007f2cff84210a4226df,000000000000000000001000e0011000,[email protected],
testuser,vmuser,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,</time></time></time>

In vSphere 5.5, when using the Active Directory as an LDAP server or Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication) Identity Source, you may see:

• In the ds.log, located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\Logs, you see entries similar to:
  

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.sso.client.impl.SamlTokenImpl] SAML token for subject {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>} successfully parsed from Element</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.sso.client.impl.SamlTokenImpl] SAML token for subject {Name: InventoryService_2013.11.05_133314, Domain: vsphere.local} successfully parsed from Element</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.sso.client.impl.SecurityTokenServiceImpl] Successfully acquired token for user: {Name: InventoryService_2013.11.05_133314, Domain: vsphere.local}</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.sso.admin.client.vmomi.impl.AdminClientImpl] Client was created successfully</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 ERROR com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.impl.DomainNameNormalizerImpl] SSO Domain does not exist: <Domain with Custom UPN></time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 ERROR com.vmware.vim.vcauthenticate.servlets.AuthenticationHelper] Invalid user</time>

com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.exception.InvalidUserException: Domain does not exist: <Domain with Custom UPN>

at com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.impl.DomainNameNormalizerImpl.toVcDomain(DomainNameNormalizerImpl.java:45)

at com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.impl.SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.nameFromPrincipalId(SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.java:73)

at com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.impl.SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.createUserPrincipal(SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.java:124)

at com.vmware.vim.dataservices.ssoauthentication.impl.SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.createUserPrincipal(SsoPrincipalFactoryImpl.java:45)

at com.vmware.vim.vcauthenticate.servlets.AuthenticationHelper.loginBySamlToken(AuthenticationHelper.java:181)

at com.vmware.vim.query.server.authentication.impl.MoSessionManager.loginBySamlToken(MoSessionManager.java:62)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)

at com.vmware.vim.vmomi.server.impl.InvocationTask.run(InvocationTask.java:76)

at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)

at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

on

...

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.sso.client.impl.SamlTokenImpl] SAML token for subject {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>} successfully parsed from Element</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.AuthorizationManagerImpl] Computing permissions for <Custom UPN>\<User></time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.AuthorizationManagerImpl] Session count for user [after add]: <Custom UPN>\<User</i>> is 1</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthenticate.servlets.AuthenticationHelper] User has no privileges.</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.AuthorizationManagerImpl] Removed user data for: <Custom UPN>\<User></time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.AuthorizationManagerImpl] Session count for user [after remove]: <Custom UPN>\<User> is 0</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 ERROR com.vmware.vim.vcauthenticate.servlets.AuthenticationHelper] Authentication error: com.vmware.vim.vcauthenticate.exception.NoPrivilegesException</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> pool-11-thread-1 INFO com.vmware.vim.query.server.authentication.impl.MoSessionManager] Unabled to complete login</time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> Thread-2 INFO com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.SessionAuthDataImpl] Session closed for principal: <Custom UPN>\<User></time>

[YYYY-MM-DD <time> Thread-2 WARN com.vmware.vim.vcauthorization.impl.AuthorizationManagerImpl] Unable to find user data for user: <Custom UPN>\<User></time>

• In the vmware-identity-sts.log, located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\CIS\runtime\VMwareSTS\logs, you see entries similar to:

[YYYY-MM-DD <time></time> tomcat-http--7 TRACE com.vmware.identity.saml.idm.IdmPrincipalAttributesExtractor] 5 attributes retrieved for {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>}
[YYYY-MM-DD <time></time> tomcat-http--7 TRACE com.vmware.identity.saml.idm.IdmPrincipalAttributesExtractor] An attribute PrincipalAttribute [name=http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/givenname, format=urn:oasis:names:tc
:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:uri, friendly name=givenName, value=[Rodney]] retrieved for {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>}
[YYYY-MM-DD <time></time> tomcat-http--7 TRACE com.vmware.identity.saml.idm.IdmPrincipalAttributesExtractor] An attribute PrincipalAttribute [name=http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/surname, format=urn:oasis:names:tc:S
AML:2.0:attrname-format:uri, friendly name=surname, value=[<User>]] retrieved for {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>}
[YYYY-MM-DD <time></time> tomcat-http--7 TRACE com.vmware.identity.saml.idm.IdmPrincipalAttributesExtractor] An attribute PrincipalAttribute [name=http://vmware.com/schemas/attr-names/2011/07/isSolution, format=urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.
0:attrname-format:uri, friendly name=Subject Type, value=[false]] retrieved for {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom UPN>}
[YYYY-MM-DD <time></time> tomcat-http--7 TRACE com.vmware.identity.saml.idm.IdmPrincipalAttributesExtractor] An attribute PrincipalAttribute [name=http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/claims/UPN, format=urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:attrname-format:
uri, friendly name=userPrincipalName, value=[<User>@<Domain with Custom UPN>]] retrieved for {Name: <User>, Domain: <Domain with Custom </i>UPN>}

Resolution

This issue has been resolved in:

VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1. For more information, see vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes

VMware vCenter Server 5.1 Patch 1.

To work around this issue, use one of these options:

• Log in without selecting the Use Windows Session Authentication option in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.
• When vCenter Single Sign On is installed on a Windows system, Active Directory users with custom suffixes must log into the vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client using their user name with the non-customized domain name as a suffix.

Note: If you encounter similar issues after upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1.0b, see AD users with customized UPN user names cannot log into vCenter Server after upgrade to vSphere 5.1.b (2044150)