vCenter Server 6.0 Hardware Status: No host data available

After the upgrade to VMware vCenter Server 6.0 I noticed, that the hardware status tab displays “No host data available”:

I found a KB article about this (known) issue. Unfortunately there is only a workaround available that is not possible for every user because of security issues.

To get the hardware status back, you have to assign the “Global Permissions” Administrator role to the affected user:

• log in to the vSphere Web Client with an account holding SSO Administrative privileges (eg. administrator@vSphere.local)
• go to “Administration” – “Global Permissions”
• change to the tab “Manage”
• use the “+” or “edit” icon to assign the role “Administrator” to the affected users

But please note, that you should use the global permissions with care!

Here is a short excerpt of the VMware vSphere 6.0 Documentation about Global Permissions:

Global Permissions

Global permissions are applied to a global root object that spans solutions, for example, both vCenter Server and vCenter Orchestrator. Use global permissions to give a user or group privileges for all objects in all object hierarchies.

Each solution has a root object in its own object hierarchy. The global root object acts as a parent object to each solution object. You can assign global permissions to users or groups, and decide on the role for each user or group. The role determines the set of privileges. You can assign a predefined role or create custom roles. See Using Roles to Assign Privileges. It is important to distinguish between vCenter Server permissions and global permissions.

[…]

Global permissions give a user or group privileges to view or manage all objects in each of the inventory hierarchies in your deployment.

If you assign a global and do not select Propagate, the users or groups associated with this permission do not have access to the objects in the hierarchy. They only have access to some global functionality such as creating roles.