vSphere Web Client is so bad that my experience managing and supporting VMware has turn to....

[kgottleib]

Purpose of this post is simple and obvious...  bring back development to thick client.  THANKS!

[andreaspa]

System Center with VMM can manage ESXi hosts, so you always have that option.. Haven't tried it, so I'm not familiar with it yet.. But it's an option.

[Naashan]

andreaspa wrote:

System Center with VMM can manage ESXi hosts, so you always have that option.. Haven't tried it, so I'm not familiar with it yet.. But it's an option.

Thanks!  I'll research that.

[eliot]

It works -  but you still need to use the VMware client to dig into it properly.

Seems ironic that you will only be able to manage VMware with a horrible web client or use a competitors product to manage it with a full client in SCVMM.

[Shafay2000]

Here is your answer. First, use Chrome as browser, second you need to go with atleast 4vCPU*32GB of RAM & adjust the java heap sizes for SSO, Tomcat management server (TC), inventory server and Profile driven storage to "fine tune" vCenter appliance with embedded or external Oracle DB. I did this and performance gains went 10X.This includes running vSAN enabled clusters. My recommendation that works great based on design documents:

vCenter Server Inventory	VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices (tc Server)	Inventory Service	Profile-Driven Storage Service (sps)
Large inventory (More than 400 hosts or 4000 virtual machines)	4GB	12GB	4GB

Memory tuning on vCenter server appliance 5.5

• Log in to vCenter server appliance using SSH
• vi /usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/wrapper/conf/wrapper.conf configuration file, look for JVM memory section and change maxmemory to 4096

Line 66

##############  JVM Memory#############wrapper.java.initmemory=512wrapper.java.maxmemory=4096

• vi /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/inventoryservice/wrapper/conf/wrapper.conf configuration file, find wrapper.java.maxmemory parameter and change it to 12288

Line 116

# Maximum Java Heap Size (in MB)wrapper.java.maxmemory=12288

• vi /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/sps/wrapper/conf/wrapper.conf find wrapper.java.maxmemory parameter and change it from 1024 to 4096

Line 154

# Maximum Java Heap Size (in MB)wrapper.java.maxmemory=4096

• Reboot vCenter Appliance w/ external DB(1000 hosts)/embedded for lab (100 Hosts)

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2005086&sl...

vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

PS: vCenter 6.0 has much better performance based on my beta testing .. so don't loose hope yet. Lots of enhancements coming ...

PS: I also vented about this here until I figured this out just recently: Re: Large customer - vCenter 5.5 U1c Web Client Response Time/ Performance and Navigation issues

[vmrulz]

I'll throw my support of this VENT into the hat. I'm a long timer on this tech and this product is so poorly executed by a company that dominates this market they should be ashamed. I know for a fact that VMware has lost and is losing a lot of their brain trust (as many companies do in the dog eat dog world of tech) and it is evidenced in products such as this and I'll throw out another horribly executed feature vFlash. vFlash in my environment caused many of these high resource use issues in the vcenter 5.5 appliance and the resultant loss of VM inventory ONLY in the web client. Open an SR with VMware on the topic and that is the first thing they check. So vFlash is a feature you can only get by paying the premium for Ent+. I bought a bunch of local flash drives as part of my 5.5 upgrade project along with an Ent+ upgrade. Now I'm told after a couple SR's that vFlash is unusable and should be disabled and all references to it being enabled must be eliminated from the VCDB on the appliance in order for vcenter WEB CLIENT to function. The fat client functions just fine with the exception that vcenter server is so occupied the vFlash bug that everything is slow. Oh and you can't modify any version 10 VM's with the fat client... that is so stupid it makes my blood boil having made the mistake of upgrading my vcenter appliance to v10 and have to redeploy because of the minor little snaffu!

I've said it before here and I'll say it again, VMware you must get back to the basics and fix your core product line. I could not give a crap about vCloud this and that.. fix ESXi and vcenter!!!!

Now back to my latest SR on vcenter.

I will say in closing that onshoring your support is a very welcome change of direction.

Ron

[jlong]

I currently use vsphere essential plus 5.5, upgraded from 5.1. I needed a vmdk larger than 2TB for a vm which is why I upgraded. I hardly ever use the web client because of many of the reasons already mentioned. Slow and non intuitive layout.

There are 2 things I use the web client for. I have to use it to manage vmdk's larger than 2tb and I use it for live storage vmotion. With ess+ you cannot do live storage vmotion due to licensing but can with the web client, although you have to change hosts and datastores for some reason or you get a license error. Not sure if that's a bug or not but I really like having the ability to do live storage vmotion!

I was messing around with a test vm and used hw version 10 and couldn't manage it in the vic. The easiest way I found to get back to hw version 9 is delete the vm files but leave the vmdk's behind. Create a new vm using hw version 9 and use the existing vmdk's. It worked out great.

Unfortunately the web client is here to stay. More and more 3rd party vendors are starting to support it so customers < vendors.

One last thing I want to comment on is remote access. I use RDP to connect to my vcenter server. It's isolated from the internet in my network so the web client is never exposed to the lan/wan... As far as iPad or Android tablets I connect to the office over a vpn open a couple RDP sessions and I'm able to do everything I would want to in the VIC remotely on my phone! Been doing this for years. Of course for more complex tasks I breakout the laptop. I've never ever ever ever ever ever tried to use the web client on my phone, and never will until the vic is no longer supported.

Edit: Just wanted to mention I did a google search for "vsphere 6" and this was the 3rd result. LOL!

Message was edited by: jlong

[JO_IMPAKT]

I must say I agree. I tried using the webclient multiple times. But I always go back to the normal cient. The normal client is just more clear, more responsive and more intuitive. It would be great if the normal client was kept and further developed ...

[ALBISIT]

Dearest kgottleib,

great post !

you took the words right out of our mouths...

hopefully VMware is taking that to heart...

Cheers,

Andre

[OBRUser]

I just logged in to say that the web client is absolutely Sh1t. It is stopping me from performing tasks that could be done in 1/4 of the time. What a fail. How do they make something so bad...... Well done it is absolute cr4p

[nhheeee]

I agree. It is freaking terrible. I am purposely NOT upgrading my VM's to version 10 just to not have to use the web client.

[bies]

I must agree. The webclient is soo shitty that I do not upgrade my VM's to machine version 10. I think this is not the way VMware wants it. It is soo fucking slow that I even like Hyper-V manager more... Damn you VMware! You really do not want more moneys!

[JO_IMPAKT]

bies wrote:

I must agree. The webclient is soo shitty that I do not upgrade my VM's to machine version 10. I think this is not the way VMware wants it. It is soo fucking slow that I even like Hyper-V manager more... Damn you VMware! You really do not want more moneys!

Indeed, exactly the same here. Using version 8 and Hyper-V has a clear advantage here. The Hyper-V Manager is a lot better than the webclient!

[julezatmortonbu]

nhheeee wrote:

I agree. It is freaking terrible. I am purposely NOT upgrading my VM's to version 10 just to not have to use the web client.

1000 times this...  Luckily there isn't anything in VM hardware v10 to make it worth while to feel the level of pain that is the web client.
Like many people in this thread, I really tried to use it, even went the route of forcing myself to just use the web client for a week or two straight (same thing I did with Windows 8.1) and unlike 8.1, I couldn't bear to use it anymore.

It's slow.
It's buggy.
The flash thing is just beating a dead horse. (HTML 5 is king!)
It's not intuitive.
It's trying to hard to look slick and shiny

[braddman1]

You know what the most stupid thing IN THE ENTIRE WORLD IS? You cannot manage VM Settings with the Client anymore on Version 10 or above machines. So thanks VMWare. I wasn't able to get to the VSphere Web Client for whatever reason, and I had a NIC card DISCONNECTED on an important server at host bootup with no way to turn the NIC on in the hard client. Ridiculous.

[MKguy]

One interesting tidbit:

vSphere 5.5 Update 2, which is scheduled to be released in Q3 2014, will add support for managing virtual hardware v10 VMs with the C# client again:

http://up2v.nl/2014/08/25/a-summary-of-vmworld-2014-annoucements/

[Bleeder]

Unforunately, it doesn't look like there's a public beta for 5.5 Update 2 like there is for 6.0.

[vmrulz]

Wow and hey the web client performance will be greatly improved according to the list of "promises".. check is the mail if it is still Flash based!

[MKguy]

Unfortunately, VMware confirmed long ago that "the next major release", aka this one, will still be flash-based:

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/477686?start=15&tstart=0

On the flash issue: Yes, web client today is flash based and we acknowledge the vulnerability issue. We are very focused on building a html5 based client right now. We will make announcements when it is ready. Clearly its not going to be in this upcoming major release

[kgottleib]

Well well, 18,847 views later here we are... I was first very hesitant to launch this post, but I figured there would be no way to get VMware's attention on this issue and how we all feel about the direction they have been taking with this web client in regards to FORCING us to use it, and the aweful performance and functionality.  Boy did they slip up.  Consider this a personal thanks to all of you who have commented with both constructive criticism and humerous antics, I had many a good laugh out loud at many of the posts, and learned in the process from others!

But the good news is I believe we have accomplished our goal, that is, getting VMware to listen, and take heed of what the community wants.  We all make mistakes, and god knows i make more than most.  But VMware seems to have been making some momumental errors over the past few years.  Is this due to the former MS guy they brought in?  or  because of EMC influence?  Not really sure..  But I do see a pattern still in progress, that is, constant changing of the mind, and now they want to rebrand things again???? 

Let me state of behalf of all of us, We are ENGINEERS, not your average Joe!   We laugh and shake our heads when VMware leadership, and especially the marketing group, attempt to pull the wool over our eyes as if we are just drones of society.  This isn't some off the shelf product you sell, where you can rebrand to something like vSphere Plus or vSPhere Advantage etc etc.. we don't care about your naming, we are engineers, we care about funcionality, performance, inuitiveness, and proper error handling \ coding.   If you can't keep your branding constant then we, the community, will be forced to create our own name for your product that will in fact grow more popular than the actual names you choose, trust me when I say it will!  We have become empowered and will own you soon enough even if we have to collectively rise together and buy up your stock!  Or even unionize ourselves!   how would you like that! 

I bid all of you a great day, keep the critiques and posts coming!

[julezatmortonbu]

Hear, Hear!

kgottleib wrote:

Let me state of behalf of all of us, We are ENGINEERS, not your average Joe!   We laugh and shake our heads when VMware leadership, and especially the marketing group, attempt to pull the wool over our eyes as if we are just drones of society.  This isn't some off the shelf product you sell, where you can rebrand to something like vSphere Plus or vSPhere Advantage etc etc.. we don't care about your naming, we are engineers, we care about funcionality, performance, inuitiveness, and proper error handling \ coding.   If you can't keep your branding constant then we, the community, will be forced to create our own name for your product that will in fact grow more popular than the actual names you choose, trust me when I say it will!  We have become empowered and will own you soon enough even if we have to collectively rise together and buy up your stock!  Or even unionize ourselves!   how would you like that!

I have hope in the fact that they extended support for the C# client through 5.5 U2 that they are listening...or at least a faction of them are.

But be loud and proud!