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Kweli
Contributor
Contributor

Windows XP vSphere Client 5.5

     Im doing a fresh install of VMware 5.5 remotely. I don't have any modern windows computers on the local network. Can someone point me in the direction of how to get the client installed on windows xp.

Thanks

13 Replies
Gortee
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Good Afternoon,

I am not sure Windows XP is supported for the client.  I would suggest that you use the web client since Firefox and chrome still support XP.  The web client would also present all the new features.   Just my two cents.

Thanks,

J

Joseph Griffiths http://blog.jgriffiths.org @Gortees VCDX-DCV #143
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Welcome to the Community,

please take a look at the vSphere 5.5 Release Notes (vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI might fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.5, with a handshake failure) for workarounds to be able to run the vSphere Client on Windows XP.

André

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DumpCheck
Contributor
Contributor

The relevant 32 bit 2003 SP2 KB (KB948963) is

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/948963

"An update is available to adds support for the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA AES128-SHA and the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA AES256-SHA AES cipher suites in Windows Server 2003"

It's possible to extract the 32 bit 2003 hotfix files from the hotfix

http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%20Server%202003/sp3/Fix192447/3790/free/351385_ENU_i386_zip.ex...

by running the hotfix from a command line with the /extract flag, but the extracted files pretty clearly wants to match up against 2003 SP2.

Looking at the extracted files, there are SP installer apps and INF files (most likely to fiddle with registered files for a given SP and configure uninstall information). For the actual hotfix payload, it appears to be only two specific DLLs.

rsaenh.dll

schannel.dll

which are what we probably need (and notably only 4 months newer than XPSP3 DLL's). Poking around the INF files suggests they go into system32, and there doesn't seem to be any obvious registry registrations aside from noting the presence of the hotfix install itself. There's even an XP callout, so somebody had thought of doing XP in the hotfix as well but then gave up on it it seems. There are also terminal server/client callouts, so this originally was revolving around RDP connection security issues (FIPS compliance?)

All of which suggests the thin possibility of manually throwing those two DLL's  in system32 and having it work. Except to protect against DLL hell, windows replaces foreign DLL's with registered safe DLL's stored elsewhere to prevent tampering, more or less.

But, most apps if written well prioritize local DLL's before using system DLL's. A little experimentation with putting the 2 DLL's into the Launcher directory where VpxClient.exe is causes VIclient to to fail to even start, citing a release name issue with ntdll.dll (likely looking for a 2003SP2 release) so close but no cigar. Trying to put the 2 into the 5.5 directory results in the original handshake error, so the Launcher is clearly doing the connection work and determining which sub parts to load based on the host.

At this point, the easy way out doesn't seem to exist, short of microsoft fixing this hotfix for XP compatibility. Though this link has some interesting info that might be applicable...

http://superuser.com/questions/571081/cryptographic-service-error-message-on-windows-xp-sp3

This might help a little...

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/968730

Isuppose a remote possibility is trying to extract the XP 64 bit DLL's but I suspect that has less of a chance of working. Though anyone else is welcome to try.

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richardvm
Contributor
Contributor

For those that don't have vCenter or want to connect to a stand alone ESXi 5.5 host via the vSphere Client, you'll need to ssh into the ESXi host and modify the following file: /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/config.xml

Insert the following xml line into the appropriate section:

<vmacore>
        ...
        <ssl>
            ...
            <cipherList>ALL</cipherList>
        ...
        </ssl>
    ...
</vmacore>


After saving your changes restart the service:

/etc/init.d/rhttpproxy restart

DumpCheck
Contributor
Contributor

You sir a a scholar and a gentleman.

It's important to do this exactly in the right order including using the onboard vi within ESXi, or else you get some sort of weird locking effect on the file making you think you overwrote successfully when you didn't.

see http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=204914...

at the bottom for details.

use vi to edit the file

locate the right area to edit using arrow keys

press i to enter vi insert mode

add the new line (avoid using tabs?)

press ESC to return to vi command mode

type :w and press enter to overwrite

type :wq to overwrite again and quit vi

Confirm this works.

grace27
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

what first comes to mind is let install service pack 3 then check it

Any how xp going to expire of jan 2014 so better let upgrade to win 7 or higher.

" The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I am not sure that there is any client for windows xp ..but if you want to access your host you can access this using web Client..

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rickatech
Contributor
Contributor

Wow, the config.xml <cipherList>ALL</cipherList> tip from above allowed my Win XP vSphere 5.5 client to connect after all 🙂


I needed to enable SSH in though 1st ... remember to disable after tuning config.xml,

Enable SSH on ESXi 5 via vSphere Client | Thomas Maurer

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Alain_Fauconnet
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

Been there, tried this (replacing the two DLLs with the ones from the W2003 hotfix): it fails miserably because there are unresolved references to entry points only found in the Windows Server DLLs.

It also breaks XP pretty well, can't even log into the machine anymore (unable to check license status blah blah...)

I had to copy the original DLLs back over the C$ share.

Unfortunately, the fix suggested by VMware themselves on the VCSA appliance (editing server.xml and add ciphers to the list) didn't work for me either.

Oh well, I guess I can live without inventory search whenever I still need to use this XP-based machine.

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mitcha
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you both richardvm and  DumpCheck

I wanted to confirm this worked for me with XP with vSphere Server/Client 6 also i would assume it also works on 5.5 , Ausom fix thank you.

Mitch 

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Paul_k2
Contributor
Contributor

For those less versed in the collection of services and the methods to restart, here's the line needed to kick it off after the changes were made:

/etc/init.d/rhttpproxy restart


PS This resurrected my XP install of the vsphere client. I had reinstalled with the latest update but to no avail. This did the trick. Thanks.


Paul

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vjekobalas
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you all for the info !  - I would have been lost without it Smiley Wink

Just to confirm, this worked for me from an old P4 running XP pro with the vSphere 6.0 client

to a Lenovo TS140 running VMvisor 6.0 update 1.

I just restarted the server after the update of the file as I have nothing running yet.

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formatdynamics
Contributor
Contributor

cipherList in /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/config.xml confirmed to work on xp sp3 vsphere 5.1 connecting to esxi 5.1 server.

Thanks!

-Tony

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