vSphere Web Client questions - (noob)

[AmDD]

  Hello! Im not sure if this question goes here or not, if not could someone move it to the correct forum? Thanks

Im fairly new to VMWare but have a number of hosts running ESXi 4 and 5.0, each is a separate host managed by the vSphere client. We recently received a new server and installed ESXi5.5 on it only to findout that we need the vSphere Web Client to manage the VMs. My question is can we use one vSphere web client to monitor multiple physical hosts?

Our setup is 4 physical hosts all running different versions of ESXi, all independent - nothing fancy. We also have a SAN with two physical hosts in a cluster off site in another datacenter (different IP connected through WAN). This host is setup with the vSphere web client and Id like to, atleast temporarily, where I would like to manage the new ESXi5.5 server from. Is that possible? I am getting errors when adding it.

thank you!

[vmroyale]

Note: Discussion successfully moved from vSphere Web Client SDK to VMware ESXi 5

[JPM300]

What is the error you are getting when you try to add the new ESXi 5.5 host to your vCenter?

What is your current vCenter at? is it at 5.5 becuase if it is not you will not be able to add the 5.5 host to VC to manage until you upgrade your vCenter and the rest of the components

[AmDD]

The error is "A general system error occurred: Timed waiting for vpxa to start"

The versions may very well be the issue. I never thought of that but it makes sense, the vCenter is 5.1 which is probably why it wont work.

Am I correct in my thought that I can manage them all from a single web client, even across a WAN (as long as the versions match or is backward compatable)? Or would it be better to setup a second web client server local to manage the 4 hosts in this location?

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

You can manage all from a single vSphere Web Client since all host are added to vCenter and hosts are compatible with your vCenter Server... you need make sure all required ports are open through your WAN link. To setup a new vSphere Web Client you still need a compatible version of vCenter.