Intro
I’ve mentioned this a couple of times in passing during other posts, I often see customers trying to find settings that are hidden in the Manager mode and they are unable to access them as their account is not setup to show both the Policy and Manager modes.
VMware is moving away from Manager mode and the current recommendation is to create all objects in Policy mode where possible, this is especially visible from the Global Manager perspective as there is no Manager mode there and everything is built via Policy mode.
There are however still times where you need to configure settings via the Manager mode at least until VMware move them into Policy mode so here is how you can enable it.
Enable User Interface Mode Toggle
To enable the ability to switch between Policy mode and Manager mode navigate to System > Settings > User Interface Under the User Interface Mode Toggle section click EDIT
You now have the option to enable the mode to make it visible or not for:-
- All Users
- If Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are visible to all users.
- Users with the Enterprise Admin role only
- If Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are visible to users with the Enterprise Admin role.
- Hidden from All Users
- Even if Manager mode objects are present, the mode buttons are hidden from all users. This displays Policy mode UI only, even if Manager mode objects are present.
Select which mode you want normally one of the first two.
Next select the default mode to which you will start, this is normally Policy mode since thats where 99% of the configuration will be done so it means your not having to constantly switch to Policy mode.
Then click SAVE
The settings will be applied and you will need to refresh the browser for it to take effect so click REFRESH
You will now see in the top right corner a toggle menu allowing you to change views between POLICY and MANAGER modes.
The Effect
Lets take a quick look at what the modes look like by looking at the Segments page by navigating to Networking > Segments Looks pretty normal as this is the mode you get by default anyway so nothing to see here move along.
Lets select MANAGER from the toggle on the top right now go back to the same page you’ll notice the Segments page is missing…. Well its not missing its just using legacy names as Segments used to be call Logical Switches just as the T1 and T0 Gateways used to be called Logical Routers. So all we need do is select Networking > Logical Switches
Lets try editing one of the Segments/Logical Switches in Manager mode, what you will notice is that you can’t edit the settings note the message at the bottom ‘These fields are defined by another object in NSX and can’t be edited’ this is typical of an item created in the other mode the general rule of thumb is most things can only be edited in the mode they were created in.
