Enabling the ESXi Lockdown Mode prevents root access to the hosts over the network. With Lockdown Mode enabled, all configuration changes to the vSphere environment must be made by accessing the vCenter Server. Lockdown Mode restricts access to host services on the ESXi host, but does not affect the availability of these services. There have been several significant enhancements in Lockdown Mode with the release of vSphere 6.0, which is addressed more fully in the section on host security.