ESXi 5.1 and Web Client

[tonybourke]

I saw the great video from Chris Wahl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6E_-4dSlLY&feature=relmfu

Looks though like it's only on vCenter Server? Not on the standalone free version of ESXi 5.1?

[karthickvm]

Hello Tony,

WebClient is like a addon for vCenter. It requires SSO (Single Sign On) and vCenter.

Unfortunately we cannot use webclient to connect ESXi Directly. we can connect only to vCenter.

[chriswahl]

Sad but true. Requires a full install of the web client server for now, hopefully embeded into the hypervisor (even in a limited form) in the future so that you don't have to install the thick client prior to installing vCenter (as a VM or the virtual appliance). Chicken and egg kinda thing.

[azlatovic]

Any info about next version (6)? How to manage standalone ESXi? 5.1 is final release for VI client.

[phlampe]

Any update on this question ?

I have an ESXi 5.1 server, in a Mac environment, and my only way to manage the VMs is to start a Windows XP VM on my Mac with VMWare Fusion and then using vSphere Client.

That's ok once in a while, but is a hassle for everyday use. And the more I have to do that, the more it makes me feel like switching to another hypervisor that would be managed by a web client.

Thanks for your input,

Paul-Henri

[dawesi]

if you use parallels or vmware fusion you can use unity mode to open vsphere client like a native mac app.

[gokevgo]

I have a standalone version of VMware Server from 2008.  It installed on top of RHEL5 / CentOS5 and included a free standalone web-based GUI.

VMware-server-2.0.0-122956.i386.tar.gz

VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.rpm

VMware included this over 5 years ago and it worked awesomely.  I love the VMware product line but I wish we could please get away from the Windows-centric world.  There are a bunch of big grownup OS-es that real enterprise engineers use now to manage, and requiring Windows is beyond inconvenience.

Since ESXi 4, as a workaround, I have used a tiny 32-bit Windows XP VM for now.  This has been apparently forced to obsoletion with ESXi5.  The package VMware-viclient-all-5.1.0-1064113.exe refuses to install on a 32-bit XP.  The missing packages include 64-bit packages from Microsoft that (obviously) won't install on XP SP3 32 bit.  I am now at a crossroad to reinstall a 64-bit Windows OS -- just for installing the newest VMware VSphere client.

Can someone please give me some false hope that us silly ol Linux users can get the 5-year-old web GUI back?

[psychowood]

I am now at a crossroad to reinstall a 64-bit Windows OS -- just for installing the newest VMware VSphere client.

That's not completely true: the problem is XP, not the 32bit architecture. I was in the same situation, and my host is Atom based (no VT-d, no 64bit VMs): right now I'm running vSphere Client 5.1 (786111) on a Win7 (32bit) VM to connect to ESXi 5.1.0 (1117900).

Not a web client, but better than nothin' 🙂