---
title: "VMware vCenter Roles and Permissions"
slug: "vmware-vcenter-roles-and-permissions"
updated: 2025-04-10T03:28:58Z
published: 2025-04-10T03:28:58Z
canonical: "kb.expedient.com/vmware-vcenter-roles-and-permissions"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.expedient.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# VMware vCenter Roles and Permissions

### Introduction

In order for the Cohesity platform to protect Virtual Machines hosted within VMware a privileged account is leveraged. This account is utilized by various processes to create snapshots, create VMs, and a number of different operations for backup and restore functionality. Without an account with the proper permissions, the Cohesity system will not be able to perform any backups against a VMware source or may encounter intermittent hard-to-track errors if the permissions only slightly differ.

The following table is accurate as of the permissions required for Cohesity version 6.6.0d:

| **Privilege Level** | **Permissions** |
| --- | --- |
| Cryptographic operations | Add Disk |
| Direct Access |
| Datastore | Allocate space |
| Move datastore |
| Browse datastore |
| Remove file |
| Low-level file operations |
| Configure datastore |
| Folder | Create folder |
| Delete folder |
| Global | EnableMethods |
| DisableMethods |
| Log event |
| Licenses |
| Manage custom attributes |
| Set custom attribute |
| Host - Configuration | Storage partition configuration |
| Maintenance |
| Query patch |
| Network | Assign network |
| Resource | Assign a virtual machine to a resource pool |
| Migrate powered-off virtual machine |
| Migrate powered on virtual machine |
| Session | View and stop sessions |
| vApp | Add virtual machine |
| Assign resource pool |
| Unregister |
| VM - Configuration | Acquire disk lease |
| Add existing disk |
| Add new disk |
| Add or remove a device |
| Advanced configuration |
| Change Settings |
| Change Swapfile placement |
| Configure Raw device |
| Remove disk |
| Toggle disk change tracking |
| Rename |
| VM - Guest Operations | Guest operation modifications |
| Guest operation program execution |
| Guest operation queries |
| VM - Edit Inventory | Create new |
| Register |
| Remove |
| Unregister |
| VM - Interaction | Guest operating system management by VIX API |
| Power on |
| Power off |
| VM - Provisioning | Allow disk access |
| Allow read-only disk access |
| Allow virtual machine download |
| VM - Snapshot management | Create snapshot |
| Remove snapshot |
| Revert snapshot |
| VM storage policies | Update |
| View |
| vSphere Tagging | Assign or unassign tag |