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kgottleib
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vSphere Web Client is so bad that my experience managing and supporting VMware has turn to....

Purpose of this post is simple and obvious...  bring back development to thick client.  THANKS!

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sk84
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A product management that replaces a solid working implementation of their main-admin interface with a work-in-progress project deserves and apparently needs a post like this one.

Originally this post certainly made sense. I think most people agree that the vSphere Web Client in earlier versions had many problems and was not yet ready for production. But now, I don't think that this should be an issue anymore.

Thats still 5 % less than expected after 2 long years. Not everybody would call that progress.

That's a valid point. I suspect VMware didn't want to make the same mistake again and launch a new client prematurely.

And the remaining 5% is more because of third-party extensions that haven't been fully integrated into the new vSphere client yet. For example all NSX management functions. For vSphere itself all features are fully implemented since release of version 6.7 U1.

--- Regards, Sebastian VCP6.5-DCV // VCP7-CMA // vSAN 2017 Specialist Please mark this answer as 'helpful' or 'correct' if you think your question has been answered correctly.
chrmaier
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For vSphere itself all features are fully implemented since release of version 6.7 U1.

No, they are not. Try to standardize a couple of hosts in parallel with the Update Manager. Where are the options for it?

There are some similar examples here and there.

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sk84
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Try to standardize a couple of hosts in parallel with the Update Manager. Where are the options for it?

Apparently VMware has decided that users should no longer use this parallel host remediation feature in the new vSphere client. See:

We have also removed some settings from being modified such as the ability for parallel host remediation and the ability to disable Quick Boot.

vSphere Update Manager Enhancements in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 - VMware vSphere Blog

It is therefore not "missing" in the actual sense, because it is an intended design or workflow change with the new vSphere Client. At this point, however, I also wonder about the reason for this "intended" change.

--- Regards, Sebastian VCP6.5-DCV // VCP7-CMA // vSAN 2017 Specialist Please mark this answer as 'helpful' or 'correct' if you think your question has been answered correctly.
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chrmaier
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The Flex client can do a parallel remediation in 6.7 U1. That's really strange. Another useful feature that VMware means to know we don't need it.

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hyvokar
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Just installed the latest 6.7 vcenter today. It seems that you cannot remove a floppy drive with html5 client from a VM. How old was this web shit again?
Also, visited some legacy systems last week and was privileged to use old thick client. My god it's FAST. It's like jumping in a Ferrari after cruising around with a Lada for a couple of years.

Also, had to buy bigger screens, since 1920x1080 isn't clearly enough for doing network stuff in web client. Was perfectly OK with thick client.

hyvokar
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Couple of observations of the new html5 client...

1) you cannot add datastore. you have to use host client for this

2) after datastore migrations summary page for VM shows incorrect datastores, refresh does not help

3) mouse not working in remote console when installing 2012r2 server

4) cant add floppy drive (or remove)

So...

Fully Featured HTML5-based vSphere Client Coming in Fall 2018 - VMware vSphere Blog

bigvern2
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""

And the first release of the vSphere Web Client with ESXi 5.1 is now 4 or 5 years ago. And it has been constantly developed and improved. Of course there were always new bugs and regressions. That's how it is in the software development of complex programs. And one can argue surely whether it was not already foreseeable that Flash is a dead horse at that time.

But let's be honest. The HTML5 based vSphere client exists now for almost 2 years and meanwhile (at the time of vSphere 6.7) all common features are implemented with very few exceptions. That means that the new vSphere client can be used for at least 95% of all daily work.""

thats a sales pitch if ever I read one, for those at the coal face the thread is entirely legitimate.

we're on all new cisco kit and 6.7 and its still pants.

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hyvokar
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How do you add a user to administrator group with standalone ESXI-server with host client?

I can create a new user, but cannot find anywhere where to assign it to local admin group.

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hyvokar
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Ok, found it... although VMware Knowledge Base  recommends using vSphere Client, you CAN actually do this with host client.

1) add user go to host -> manage -> Security & users -> users and add user

2) no need to go look for the Roles section, it would be too obvious

3) instead go back to host , click actions, click permissions, and then AGAIN click add user, type the user name you just created and assign it to the whatever group you like.

Now THIS is what I call 'innovative' UI design.

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IvarHome
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Yes, software development is today everywhere in very low quality state. First, java based webclient is much better than HTML5. In HTML5 there information is much harder to get, compared with java client. Second, standalone client was the best. Only dumbs try to make things in web. Example standalone client was very fast, and where is topology map in web client, its missing at all.

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John21710
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I Recently started configuring 8 new vmware 6.7 host servers, to replace 5.5 & 6.0 servers.

Reading how bad the GUIs were getting over the past couple of years is why we did not upgrade sooner.  We HOPED 6.7 would be better.  😞

In the 5.5 or 6.0 vSphere client I clicked on the host > Configuration > Networking it showed a very nice picture of ALL vswitches.....EVERYTHING I needed to know was right there on 1 screen.....scroll up/down.....instantly knew everything about everything. There was a little box to the right I could click and it would tell me what switch + port was plugged in.

In 6.7 U1 web client and 6.7 U1 vCenter this appears to be gone????  You now can ONLY SEE ONE VSWITCH at a time.....and the information is only partly there......and I have to constantly flip between all of the individual vswitch/vmkernel/port groups screens to figure out what is where.

THIS IS GARBAGE!!! If VMware is not going to listen to their CUSTOMERS (we have thousands of enterprise licensed VMware servers) then I'm going to recommend to our management that we look for a better solution.

The back end product is good.....your customer / user / gui interface......what we see and work with every day......is terrible.

Would you proudly drive a Ferrari with a smashed in fender and grill??  That's exactly what the user interface for 6.5 & 6.7 feel like.

Thomas000
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Same here. I held out upgrading for as long as I could, knowing I'd have to wave goodbye to the thick vSphere Client for a shitty HTML5 interface.

And it truly is as bad as I feared.

It is sloooow compared to the thick client.

OVA image export is completely missing.

OVF export option is there but doesn't actually work.

The performance monitor flickers with every refresh, making it unbearable to use.

The UI is entirely unintuitive for anything but the most basic functionality.

Sorting/ordering of VMs doesn't work in the Navigator window; everything is just random.

The Navigator window on radom refuses to even shot the list of VMs.

View options aren't retained and resizing panels is a crapshoot.

Having to either deal with certificates or constantly work around browser warnings is bonus turd on top of everything else.

And this is just what I have from fairly light use over the past few months. It's a total bag of balls. I guess my choices are either downgrading to 6.0 or switching to HyperV. I've resisted the latter for years but all of a sudden it looks like a way more attractive option. Pity.

hyvokar
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Just upgraded to the latest vcsa, build 14368073

I have a problem with cluster resources. How can I quickly check in the html5 client how many vcpus and how many gigs of ram has been provisioned?

In the flash client (which is being depreciated) you'd go to cluster -> VMs tab and select the appropriate fields, but I cannot find how to do this customization in html5 client.

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hyvokar
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In the html5 client, how would you quickly check a couple of events that happened a week ago?
I mean I cannot find anything but going to cluster -> monitor -> events, and clicking "> next" arrow 200 times. And ofcourse wait 5secs between clicks.

e: it seems to be getting worse the earlier you go in to events. I'm now at 5 days before, and it takes almost 20secs between the clicks.

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franktroeger
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Hi,

i guess you search for the "Show/Hide Columns" context menu?

Its no longer richgt mouse button on a column as it was before in flash client.

You can add or remove cpus or mem size still if you go to cluster -> VMs Tab as before but then you should not go on columns right click but left click on one cloumns arrow down (be careful to hit the arrow, otherwise youll sort the column)

Hope thats what you looking for.

hyvokar
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Thanks franktroeger!

Exactly what I was looking for. Nicely hidden feature 🙂

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BringBackCSharp
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Everyone here should give their TAM's a negative review for not doing enough to make sure the customer voice is heard.  The disaster called web clients has been in development since 5.1, currently that means from 5.1 to 6.7 we have 7 different web clients that they have been working on at one time or another.  Let your TAM's know that we want the fast, stable, reliable, functional, and familiar C# client back.

They can spend the time to work on updating the C# client, i mean they have been working on 4 different GD clients since 6.5. 

6.7 current update still can't get both flex and html5 clients to F'ing match.

But hey at least we have a G0d D@mn dark theme, before we have a fully functional single web based client.

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TBKing
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VMware is too busy buying up other companies and jamming them into the cloud to worry about where they started.

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gangelo1
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I'm using vmware esxi 7, and when I first started it up, logged into the web client and started adding my vms, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. 2 days later, I think it sucks. I keep running into issues where the network adapter I created keeps disappearing and coming back periodically. Re-selecting it on the VM does nothing, sometimes my VM network adapter doesn't even show up in the dropdown list to select it. I have no snapshots, I saw that "fix" for this, but its become a nightmare. I'm glad I'm only trying to set up a home lab.

I honestly don't know how people use this product with this kind of instability.

barkley128
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You should run away from java technologies in serious web applications like a plague. Simply do not use them. Please. I know it's a nice stack for devs, but the end product gives me more and more headaches. People want a stable & fast product. Java is nor stable nor fast. If it's stable it's simple and never fast. I'm all for returning the native client. Or at least use nodejs or anything which isn't java.

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