You asked for it, and we delivered. Happy to announce availability of VMware Enterprise Systems Connector (VESC), a unified installer to install both VMware IDM connector and AirWatch Cloud Connector (ACC) on the Windows platform starting with AirWatch 9.1 release. You can download the VESC installer from the AirWatch console.
Here’s detailed description on VMware Enterprise Systems Connector by Andrew Hornsby, Product Manager responsible for this component.
Overview
In AirWatch 9.1, the AirWatch Cloud Connector (ACC) and VMware Identity Manager connector have been included as components in a new Windows installer called the VMware Enterprise Systems Connector. During the installation process, you will be able to choose which components to install, as shown below.
With the VMware Identity Manager connector now available on Windows, vSphere license and an additional server are no longer required to connect your identity manager tenant to your on-premises enterprise systems like Active Directory. Prior to the release of the VMware Enterprise Systems connector, the identity manager component was only available as a Linux virtual appliance.
Both components are recommended for anyone upgrading to Workspace ONE, and are necessary for environments utilizing identity centric features not supported by the “use AirWatch to authenticate users” option in the Workspace ONE Getting Started Wizard. These use cases include Horizon and Citrix integration, RSA Secure ID integration, Integrated Windows authentication, and complex multi-domain and multi-forest Active Directory. The “use AirWatch for authentication” option, sometimes referred to as VMware Identity Manager “ACC integration” is still supported, but we encourage utilization of the full functionality of the Enterprise Systems Connector for the best compatibility and user experience. If you have already deployed and are utilizing Workspace ONE, but now want to start using the identity component of the VMware Enterprise Systems connector, you will be able to migrate without removing your directory or user entitlements.
Deployment Model:
Both the VMware IDM Connector and ACC components offer outbound only connections to their respective services. They can also coexist on the same Windows server, allowing you to effectively upgrade your existing ACC instances to the full VMware Enterprise Systems Connector. The resulting deployment model is shown below.
Automatic Upgrades:
As long as .NET 4.6.2 has been installed on the server, automatic update for existing ACC deployments will continue without any change in existing functionality. However, if you wish to install the VMware IDM Connector component offered by the VMware Enterprise Systems Connector, you must download and run the installer. Automatic update is not yet supported for the VMware IDM Connector, so it must be manually updated by downloading and running the installer for each new version.
Availability:
VMware Enterprise Systems Connector is available with AirWatch 9.1. The installer is available in the AirWatch Console in Enterprise Integration settings, the same location where the ACC Installer was previously available, as well as within the Workspace ONE Getting Started wizard.
Documentation:
With the release of AirWatch 9.1, existing ACC documentation is updated to reflect the updated branding and additional component installation and configuration. This documentation is available on myAirWatch here.
