Restrict Concurrent VM Console Access in VMware Cloud Director

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

VMware Cloud Director allows multiple simultaneous console connections to a single virtual machine (VM) by default. This article describes the procedure to enforce a restriction, allowing only a single user to access a VM console session at a time in the VMware Cloud Director (VCD) Tenant Portal.

• Multiple users can open concurrent console sessions for the same VM.
• Applying the "Number of simultaneous connections per VM" limit does not block existing active sessions immediately.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.6.x

Cause

VMware Cloud Director enforces the "Number of simultaneous connections per VM" policy setting at the VM configuration level during the power-on or boot process. Consequently, applying this limit to a running virtual machine does not take effect until the machine is powered off and restarted.

Resolution

Follow the steps below to restrict concurrent VM console access.

1. Log in to the VMware Cloud Director Tenant Portal as an Administrator.
2. Navigate to Administration > Policies.
3. Edit the target Organization VDC Policy.
4. Set Number of simultaneous connections per VM to 1.
5. Click Save.
6. Power off or restart the target virtual machines.

Note: The updated policy takes effect only after the virtual machine is powered on again. Subsequent attempts to launch a secondary web console session will fail with a connection limit error.