I posted this over on the EMC forum as well, but thought I would share it here:
Our lab environment has multiple vSphere and vCenter deployments, all seemingly built by different people at different times with different usernames and different passwords. Since these are in a lab environment, AD is not really an option. Rather than use a large supply of sticky notes, I decided to try to use technology to make things "better" and to share what I've created so far.
I decided (after some searching of various reviews) to use KeePass 2.x for my testing, but you may find similar functionality in other password managers.
Solution #1:
KeePass offers the option to pass a username and password to another window by launching the target application (vSphere client), then switching to KeePass and selecting the entry in KeePass and selecting Auto-Type(Ctrl-V) - but you will need to first select/enter the correct server IP/name in vSphere client.
I wanted to make it more automated and also pass the IP/hostname of the server.
Solution #2:
You can create a customized "Auto-Type" macro on a per-entry or per-group basis. It may be easier to place your vSphere entries in a group of their own and then edit the Auto-Type macro for the whole group. The following will SHIFT-TAB(+{TAB}) back to the IP/name field, insert the URL field, then TAB to username and password fields when you do the Auto-Type.
Custom keystroke sequence: +{TAB}{URL}{TAB}{UserName}{TAB}{Password}{ENTER}
This allowed me to not have to manually update the server field in vSphere, but I still had to launch vSphere first.
Solution #3:
KeePass allows you to create custom URLs, e.g. "ssh://", "ftp://", "chrome://", etc... This allows you launch any application with whatever command line you want. I decided to use this feature to create a "vsphere://" URL for launching vSphere from inside KeePass. Some searching found the correct command line options to pass server/username/password on the command line to VpxClient.exe (-s SERVER -u USER -p PASS)
The process to create the custom URL type inside KeePass 2.x is:
Tools -> Options -> Integration -> "URL Scheme Overrides"
"Add"
Scheme -> vsphere
URL Override -> cmd://"C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\VpxClient.exe" -s {URL:RMVSCM}" -u {USERNAME} -p {PASSWORD}
Note: Since the URL field will now contain "vsphere://", we need to remove it before passing it to VpxClient. This is what "{URL:RMVSCM}" does.
I can now create an entry and set the username/password as expected and set the URL field to something like: "vsphere://10.10.10.10"
Now when I click on the URL field of a vsphere entry, it will launch the vSphere client and login automatically.
This does have the minor(?) concern of having the address, username and password visible in the process listing on your windows box. If you are the only user on your machine this may be acceptable. If you are concerned that some other user or application's log file may capture a list of running processes that could contain your username/password, then you may want to try the next option, or stick with solution #2.
Solution #4:
The command line of VpxClient remains visible in the process listing until you exit out of vSphere. One way to minimize the exposure is by using a program like KeeRun(included with KeeForm) This will launch another program, wait for it to launch and then populate the user/password fields and then exit. The username/password are still visible in the process listing, but only as long as KeeRun is still running. This should only be for the 5 seconds or so to get to the login dialog on vSphere.
To use KeeRun, copy the KeeRun.exe file into the KeePass directory (likely "C:\Program Files\KeePass Password Safe 2").
Then add or modify the new "vsphere://" URL scheme created in Solution #3:
Tools -> Options -> Integration -> "URL Scheme Overrides"
"Add" or "Edit" the Custom Override "vsphere" scheme at the bottom of the list
Scheme -> vsphere
URL Override ->
cmd://"{APPDIR}\KeeRun.exe" "C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\VpxClient.exe -s {URL:RMVSCM}" "VMware vSphere Client" {USERNAME} {PASSWORD} "{_USERNAME_}{TAB}{_PASSWORD_}{ENTER}" "{URL:RMVSCM}"
The options to KeeRun will start VpxClient and specify the server. It will then wait until an application window with the title of "VMware vSphere Client" to be visible. It will also check to make sure that window contains the server IP/name by checking for visible text that matches the 6th (optional) parameter to KeeRun - "{URL:RMVSCM}". Once it finds the correct window dialog, it will send the username & password and then KeeRun will exit.
Hopefully this was helpful to someone.
Brian
