Determining UserID format used for login to vCenter

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Business processes require end users to use UPN format

Environment

VMware vCenter Server

Resolution

• Logins used to access vCenter can be found in /var/log/vmware/websso.log
• Entries can be found by running grep "Authentication succeeded" or "Authentication failed" (for users that aren't successfully logging in) from a bash shell login on vCenter.
  
  • Example command:
    grep "Authentication succeeded" /var/log/vmware/sso/websso.log
  • Example log line for UPN format:
    2026-01-28T16:24:37.544Z INFO websso[77:tomcat-http--39] [CorId=########-####-####-####-############] [com.vmware.identity.idm.server.IdentityManager] Authentication succeeded for user [[email protected]] in tenant [abc.xyz] in [71] milliseconds with provider [domain.com] of type [com.vmware.identity.idm.server.provider.activedirectory.ActiveDirectoryProvider]
  • Example log line for domain\username logins:
    2026-01-28T16:24:12.832Z INFO websso[45:tomcat-http--7] [CorId=########-####-####-####-############] [com.vmware.identity.idm.server.IdentityManager] Authentication succeeded for user [domain.com\\userid] in tenant [abc.xyz] in [86] milliseconds with provider [domain.com] of type [com.vmware.identity.idm.server.provider.activedirectory.ActiveDirectoryProvider]