The vifp interface allows administrators to add, list, and remove target servers and to manage the vi-admin user’s password.
After a server is added as a vMA target, you must run vifptarget <server> before you run vSphere CLI commands or vSphere SDK for Perl scripts against that system. The system remains a vMA target across vMA reboots, but running
vifptarget again is required after each logout. See
vifptarget Command for vi-fastpass Initialization.
After you run vifptarget, you can run vSphere CLI or vSphere SDK for Perl commands and scripts and you are no longer prompted for authentication information, as follows:
Run vifp removeserver for each vMA target before you delete the vMA instance. If you do not run
vifp removeserver, the vi-user and vi-admin users remain on the target server. If you later this server to vMA, vMA creates two more accounts on this server. Run
vifp removeserver to avoid having multiple users created by vMA on each target server.
For example, if you add server1 on 9/1, and server2 on 9/2, and run vifp rotatepassword - -days 7, vMA rotates the password for server1 at midnight on 9/8 and the password for server2 at midnight on 9/9. vMA rotates the server1 password again on 9/15 and the server2 password again on 9/16. If you then run
vifp rotatepassword - -days 3, vMA rotates the server1 password on 9/18 and the server2 password on 9/19.
You can use this command to verify that addserver succeeded. This command does not require administrator privileges on vMA.