Cannot connect to vsphere web client... is there a trick to it?

[Buckie]

Alright guys, possibly I'm missing something very obvious here however I couldn't find any answer.

I am testing out esxi 5.5, downloaded the latest release and installed in on a test machine. Installation went fine, I am able to access the default page on that machine with instructions and those instructions mention that I should really use the web interface instead of the vsphere client. All right! But how? There's no link to it on that default page. I found that the interface should in theory be available at port 9443 or 943, tried both and while I can connect to one of them using unencrypted http getting some one line of text saying SSL should be used, https requests never get answered. In other words, https://ip_addr:9443 doesn't respond.

So what is the proper procedure for activating it? I'm on a Mac and it's hard for me to find a Windows installation at the moment to at least test the regular client. I tried using Fusion 7.0 Pro using the "connect to server" item in the menu - doesn't work.

I'm stumped. I really feel like I'm deciphering some ancient egyptian hieroglyphics here. Shouldn't be that bad, right? Looking for your advice.

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

the Web-Client is only available with vCenter Serverin place. In order to manage a standalone ESXi host, install and use the vSphere Client.

André

[Buckie]

Thank you for the welcome and may I ask about how that works exactly? I'm trying to understand the logic of esxi operation. For instance, what is the (normal) client software going to do? Is it installing some module into the base esxi system that isn't present there by default? Or is there some other mechanism involved?

[a_p_]

The vSphere Client is a Windows based GUI which is used to connect to and administer an ESXi host. The vSphere Client is a stand-alone management application and doesn't install anything on the ESXi host.

André

[Buckie]

I understand that, André. I'm trying to understand how exactly the Windows client is going to enable the web client. Is it going to install some module into the base esxi system? Is it going to modify some configuration file? Maybe it's going to do something else?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

>>> ... how exactly the Windows client is going to enable the web client

It doesn't. The Windows Client and the Web Client are two different things. The Web Client is only available with vCenter Server (on which the web server is running). Both, the Windows Client as well as the Web Client access the ESXi hosts via the API.

André

[Buckie]

I think I'm beginning to understand it.

My final question on this subject is whether vCenter Server is a software that's going to run under one of the Guest OSes on the platform, i.e. I'm going to need an instance of Windows running on the production machine and then install vCenter as a Windows application which is in turn going to provide the web functionality OR vCenter is something that's installed right into the base esxi system and can be used even without a single Guest OS installed.

PS In the latter case (if it's true) I understand I may need Windows to connect to esxi to perform the initial install but the point is that after the install is done I can do completely without Windows OS on the production unit.

[rcporto]

My final question on this subject is whether vCenter Server is a software that's going to run under one of the Guest OSes on the platform, i.e. I'm going to need an instance of Windows running on the production machine and then install vCenter as a Windows application which is in turn going to provide the web functionality OR vCenter is something that's installed right into the base esxi system and can be used even without a single Guest OS installed.

vCenter is offered in two flavors... the Windows installable version, where you will need an instance of Windows to install vCenter as an Windows service application that will include the possibility to use vSPhere Web Client... or deploy the vCenter Server Appliance, that is an pre-configured Linux virtual machine with vCenter installed, read more about vCenter Server Appliance: Getting Starting with the vSphere 5 vCenter Server Appliance

[Buckie]

Great. I finally understand the idea. Somehow I didn't think that it could be of an appliance type. I thought at first it would exist right inside the esxi by default or be installed into esxi. It's actually neither.

Thank you guys so much for your explanations.