vIDM does not work with Kerberos Authentication

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

• After updating the Active Directory configuration to use Kerberos, vIDM cannot sync with Active Directory
• In the workspace log, 'workspace.log', found in the directory '/opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/logs', the following errors can be seen;

  • 2025-11-04T11:46:09,524 INFO : com.vmware.horizon.adapters.kerberosAdapter.KerberosIdpAdapter - Initiating authentication using Kerberos
    2025-11-04T11:46:09,561 INFO : com.vmware.horizon.adapters.kerberosAdapter.KerberosIdpAdapter - Kerberos authentication failure: null
    2025-11-04T11:46:09,561 INFO : com.vmware.horizon.adapters.kerberosAdapter.KerberosIdpAdapter - Cause: Unsupported mechanism requested: 1.3.6.1.5.5.2

Environment

VMware Identity Manager 3.3.7

Cause

The 'idm_fips.security' or 'idm_non_fips.security' file are corrupt, possibly by a recent upgrade.

Resolution

1. If VIDM is deployed in FIPS mode
   1. Check the File Permission
      

      ls -lrth /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security

      
      Example:
      

      -r--r----- 1 horizon www 847 Aug 22 09:42 /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security

   2. Take the backup of the file      

      cp -a /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security.bak

   3. Copy the attached file[idm_fips.security] to vIDM Node/Nodes and replace  

      cp [idm_fips.security] /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/

   4. Check the file permission and set as per step a.
      

      chmod 440 /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security
      chown horozon:www /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_fips.security

1. If VIDM is deployed in Non FIPS mode
   1. Check the File Permission
      

      ls -lrth /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security

      
      Example:

      -r--r----- 1 horizon www 847 Aug 22 09:42 /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security

   2. Take the backup of the file      

      cp -a /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security.bak

   3. Copy the attached file[idm_non_fips.security] to vIDM Node/Nodes and replace     

      cp [idm_non_fips.security] /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/

   4. Check the file permission and set as per step a.
      

      chmod 440 /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security
      chown horozon:www /opt/vmware/horizon/workspace/conf/idm_non_fips.security