Unable to start the console on ESXi 3.5 clients after upgrade of vSphere Client

[irbk]

Background:

1 - 3.5 ESXi Server runninging 5 clients.  Hardware is unable to run ESXi 4

1 - 4.0 ESXi Server running 3 clients.

A few months ago I upgraded my VMWare vSphere client and ever since I've upgraded (to connect to the ESXi 4 server) I'm unable to launch the console for any of the clients still on the ESXi 3.5 server.  When I click the  "Launch Virtual Machine Console" the window just stays black or if I click the "Console" tabe in vSphere client, the window just stays white. They are running fine and I can connect to them with remote desktop fine.  I can connect to the console for any of the clients on the ESXi 4 server, just not the clients on the ESXi 3.5 server.

Any advice?  It would be really nice to be able to connect to the console for both the 4 and 3.5 systems.

Thanks in advance.

[DSTAVERT]

There is a separate client for 3.5 and 4.0 and 4.1. The launcher chooses the correct version to launch depending on the host it is connecting to.

Try increasing the video memory on the VMs running on the 3.5 hosts. I would try uninstalling the clients entirely and cleaning out the folders. Then reinstall the 3.5 client by connecting to the http://address_of_3.5_host. Make sure you have console access to the VMs. When you launch the client and connect to the 4.x host it will download and install the 4.x version.

[irbk]

Ok, I'll give that a try.  That's what happened at first, I had the 3.5 client then upgraded to the 4.0 client.  Hopefully a reinstall of both will do the trick.  I've checked all the other troubleshooting steps as far as making sure the port is open and it's not a fire wall issue, etc.  When you say "cleaning out the folders" what folders are you refering too?

[irbk]

Nope, didn't work.  I uninstalled all my VMWare vSphere & Infrastructure programs.  Connected to the 3.5 server, installed the infrastructure client and confirmed that I could connect to the 3.5 clients.  I then connected to the 4.1 server, which prompted me to install an upgrade.  I let it install the upgrade and I'm right back to where I started. 

[irbk]

How is this for a "WTF?!?" moment... I uninstalled everything again and this time I just went directly to the 4.1 server and installed the client from there.  At least I tried to install the client from there.  When the install program came up it was all in Japanese (or Chinese, some kind of writing like that, which I don't read, so I'm not sure which it was).  Not sure what the heck is up with that.  All the language settings on my computer are correct.

[DSTAVERT]

I suppose learning another language isn't an option

I connect to 3.5, 4.0 and 4.1, plus beta as do many others so your issue is not a common problem. I would try the uninstall again.

[irbk]

Uninstalled and reinstalled like 4 times.  Every time it's the same thing.  I uninstall everything and connect to the 3.5 server, then I'm able to launch the 3.5 console fine.  I connect to the 4.1 server and allow it to upgrade and I can no longer connect to the console on any of the 3.5 systems.

[irbk]

I don't know if this is expected or if something is incorrect but I did notice that when I try and run my 3.5 clients, vmware-remotemks.exe is executing from "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\2.5" whereas when I run it for the 4.1 clients, vmware-remotemks.exe is executing from "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\4.1"

Is that expected?

[irbk]

Did some more testing this morning.  On a 32bit XP box, I CAN connect to both.  So it's either a 64bit or Windows 7 issue.  I suppose the next step would be to try it on a 32 bit windows 7 machine.