vSphere Web Client no longer works on Linux workstations

[luo4]

I'm not sure how many of us out there use Linux as there main desktop OS, but it has just become much harder to effectively administer vCenter.

Recently, Google updated their Chrome browser to version 35, which now treats NPAPI plugins as deprecated and disallows them outright. (NPAPI deprecation: developer guide - The Chromium Projects) This means that a lot of plugins will no longer work, chief among them for us, the vSphere Client Integration Plugin. This means that, while the Web Client will still load, we've lost the ability to open console sessions, attach local ISOs to virtual machines, and probably other things.

Using another browser is no longer possible thanks to both VMWare's reliance on Adobe Flash versions 11.5 or higher, and Adobe freezing flash versions on Linux to version 11.2. So while the Web Client does work on Chrome thanks to the baked-in pepperflash sitting at version 13, we might be out of luck until a new Client Integration Plugin is written.

Has this affected anyone else? Has there been any official word from VMWare? I find it hard to believe that my team has been the only one wildly inconvenienced by this.

[NodeJC]

Huge problem for me too...perfect storm...and bad timing...

[pmcdonnell]

This is an entirely unacceptable situation. What a HUGE pain in the neck!

Now, as a person who almost exclusively runs Linux on VMware and who correspondingly runs Linux on the desktop, I have to run Windows in a VM to manage my virtual systems.  Not bloody likely, VMware!

VMware really needs to come up with a solution to resolve this. 

[NodeJC]

Just recently a partial workaround has appeared.

Nice and easy if you use Ubuntu, just check out this blog post: http://www.webupd8.org/2014/05/install-fresh-player-plugin-in-ubuntu.html

This is a package for the "freshplayerplugin" available here: https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin so with some extra work you could getting working on other distros.

Although not ideal, it does allow the vSphere Web Client Interface to work!

Enjoy,

NodeJC

[Bleeder]

That seems to work, thank you.  FYI, things aren't working proper in IE11 on Windows either, and IE11 was RTM'd (w/ Windows 8.1) almost 9 months ago.  Therefore I wouldn't expect a fix for Chrome 35+ anytime soon.

vSphere Web Client - "Platform-agnostic", "increased platform support", and "improved usability experience"

[luo4]

NodeJC, thanks for your work around, I'll definitely be trying this out!

To anyone affected by this, I encourage you to sound off about it. Submit support requests, bring it up in your VMUG, tell your TAM. If VMWare is to be complacent about the dysfunction of its management tools, let it not be because we didn't tell them what we needed.

[pmcdonnell]

Discussion with VMware via twitter has not yet been fruitful, I've summarized the issue as I see it and some thoughts in a Google+ post: https://plus.google.com/107672247483302023689/posts/JrM5tm3xvKP

[freaky2000]

One still wonders why they choose flash over HTML5. Have had many issues with the webclient due to flash and now this. Can't say it really ever worked well for me on linux anyways. Besides the 2.5-3.0 days then when there actually was a linux client (and less bugs). They got a crapload of complaints back then about seizing linux support, they got a crapload of complaints on the flash garbage and look how much they actually did to resolve that.

It would be unwise to hope for more this time.