Increasing CPU count on a VM fails with the error ""Permission to perform this operation was denied"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Post upgrade to vCenter 8.0, an user attempting to increase the CPU count of a virtual machine using a custom role may fail with the error:
  "Permission to perform this operation was denied. You do not hold privileges virtual machine vm-xxxx : [Virtual machine > Change Configuration > Change resource]"
  
• Attempts to perform the same by an SSO admin user works fine. 

Environment

VMware vCenter 8.x

Cause

• This issue can occur if the Role assigned to the user does not have "Change Resource" privilege under Virtual Machine > Change Configuration
  

Resolution

Enable the privilege by following the below steps. 

• Login to vCenter UI with SSO admin user
• Navigate to Administration > Access Control > Roles 
• Identify the Role that was assigned to the user and click on Edit
• Navigate to Virtual Machine and ensure if Change resource privilege is selected. If not, select it and save the configuration. 
• Logout from the vCenter, login back with the user credentials for which the role is modified and then attempt to increase the CPU count.