Quoting from official announcement:
Centrify Corporation, a leading provider of Active Directory-based identity, access and Group Policy management solutions, has joined the VMware® Technology Software Alliance Program. Centrify has optimized its DirectControl suite for VMware ESX Server so that customers can leverage Microsoft® Active Directory® to centralize and control access to their virtual machines and use Microsoft Group Policy to manage configurations. As one of the first VMware partners to provide Active Directory integration for authentication, authorization and group policy, Centrify is committed to delivering optimized support for VMware ESX Server.
“With DirectControl, administrators can now leverage their existing Active Directory infrastructure to have a single, secure password for all of their VMware virtual machines and the operating systems (running either Microsoft Windows or Linux or Solaris x86) and applications running in virtual machines,” said David McNeely, Director of Product Management at Centrify. “By consolidating user authorization and access for VMware ESX Server in Active Directory, Centrify DirectControl lets organizations easily add ESX Servers without increasing administrative overhead.”
DirectControl is an identity, access and Group Policy management solution that extends the capabilities of Active Directory for mixed Microsoft Windows®, UNIX®, and Linux® environments and Java? and web-based applications. DirectControl enhances the security of VMware ESX Server and delivers significant cost savings by enabling centralized control using Microsoft’s Active Directory environment and point of administration for mixed Windows, Linux/Unix, VMware ESX Server and Java/J2EE environments.
Administrators can reliably manage a user’s access to all systems and applications, including authentication to UNIX or Linux systems running in virtual machines, as well as VMware ESX Server. Along with simplifying administration for the IT Manager, this provides users with a single sign-on experience. DirectControl includes customizable, automatic capabilities to streamline administration and usage: auto-configuration of standard login methods; (console, ssh, ftp); caching of login credentials for offline use; and auto-home directory creation. In addition, any configuration file for VMware virtual machines can be centrally defined and automatically updated using Microsoft Group Policy and the DirectControl agent on the target system.
Price and Availability
Support for VMware ESX Server is included in the DirectControl solution suite. The DirectControl solution suite is licensed on a per server basis, starting at $300 per server.