Adding ESXi 7 to vCenter Server with non-root user

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• In ESXi 7.0 the user requires additional authorization configuration in order to be used to add the ESXi server to vCenter Server.
• When trying to add an ESXi server version 7.0 and above to vCenter Server with a custom non-root user, an error is received 

"Operation failed!" and "Status" of "Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password."

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue,

1. Download the attached (under file) script "esx_new_admin.py".
2. Using an SSH client upload the script to the '/' directory on the ESXi host.
3. Using SSH connect to the ESXi host as root, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x, 6.x and 7.x.
4. Run the uploaded script by executing the command

python /esx_new_admin.py

5. When asked by the script, provide the new user name and the password for the "root" user.

Note: The new user is not created by this script, you have to follow the process for creating a new user and granting administrator permissions applicable to previous ESXi versions as well.