vSphere Client in Environment with Multiple Keyboard Layouts

[beamerblvd]

I thought surely someone else had encountered this problem before, but I can't find anything about it anywhere on the forums, in the knowledgebase or on Google. Forgive me if I missed something.

We are running dozens of virtual machines (Windows and Linux) on multiple ESX 4 hosts. We use vSphere Client to control these machines and, when necessary (fairly frequently), access the machine consoles. Some of us have US English QWERTY keyboard layouts and some of us have US English Dvorak keyboard layouts.

The machines created by the Dvorak guys are all set to use Dvorak layouts and the QWERTY guys can't even log into them on the console. Likewise, the machines created by the QWERTY guys are all set to use QWERTY layouts and the Dvorak guys can't log into those on the console. Needless to say, this has become something of a nightmare.

I understand that the VM is very independent and that Client only forwards on key codes (and not letters) to the virtual hardware attached to the VM. But I had figured that SURELY there would be a way to tell Client what keyboard mapping your target machine is using and have it translate the key mappings so that the target machine thinks you're pressing the same buttons you think you're pressing, and yet I can't find anything. I know that ultimately all of our machines are going to have to be synchronized to use the same keyboard mappings, but that's not the issue here: no matter which path we choose, half of our guys won't be able to access any of the machines' consoles.

How do you successfully use Client in an environment where users with multiple keyboard mappings are accessing the consoles for the same machines?

Thanks,

Nick

[datamats]

In version 4.0.0 of vSphere it was possible to use the Autohotkey program to remap the keyboard (guess one could use a different keyboard layout as well).

I just re-enabled the autohotkey script every time a new vsphere client was opened.

However in version 5.1.0 that is not possible .