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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

How to install vCenter 6.5 with Limited Browser Support

Hello vCenter Community.

  I'm trying to install vCenter 6.5 appliance as a VM and I'm running into a browser problem.  Below are the steps that I've completed several times where it ends saying the browser isn't supported.

  First I'm told by VMware support and documents I've read say the better browsers are Google Chrome and Firefox.  It's said that Internet Explorer (IE) is not recommended.

1.  ESXi 6.5 is installed and licensed on barebones server.

2.  The vCenter 6.5 Appliance is accessible through the browser using the <ip address:5480> as the URL.

3.  Once the above step is completed and I try to access the vsphere-client it fails the connection with the following error: "Failed to deploy VM: A general system error occurred:"

3a.  Before the above #3 condition started I was able to deploy the VM and access "vCenter 6.5 Appliance VM using #2 above.  It's when I try to browse into the same IP using "ip address/vsphere-client" it fails the connection due to flash not installed.

4.  I install flash player and get an error.  While troubleshooting the issue it brings me to the link below.

https://java.com/en/download/help/enable_browser.xml

All browsers except IE has stopped supporting NPAPI JAVA applets past a certain version.

  With VMware using Web Browsers access only to vSphere Client how is everyone getting around this problem?  VMware recommends not using the IE browser and the other browsers are no longer supported.

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8 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Can you confirm that the time on the ESXi host is correct, DNS is setup properly for the vCSA (forward, and reverse lookup working), and the vCSA's installation image's checksum matches the one provided by VMware (i.e. the ISO image is healthy)?

André

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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, all of that has been verified.  I've synchronized the time between both ESXi hosts, but I'm not able to get any further than what I've outlined.  Because I can't browse into the vCenter Web Client I can't join the hardware to vCenter.

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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

Why would I be able to web into the <ip address:5480> URL and not the <ip address/vsphere-client> URL?  From the JAVA link it talks about the last version of each browser that worked and what doesn't work anymore.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Is everything green on the https://<vcsa>:5480 pages?

Are you able to browse to https://<vcsa> and/or https://<vcsa>/ui (the HTML5 client)?

André

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usa_kwilliamson
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

the default client in 6.5 is the flash client unless you specify /ui in the URL. I would recommend you using the HTML5 client.  But I would recommend if possible in your environment to upgrade to 6.7u1 as it has nearly all functionality in HTML5 environment and you can use chrome or firefox.   IE 11 doesn't do HTML5 well.

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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

I'm told the issue may be related to the below.

Anti Virus, HIPS, local\domain GPO.

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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

I'm currently stuck on #3 where I've deleted the VM, but now I can't recreate it.

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Dthompson04
Contributor
Contributor

I just successfully completed the install of both vCenter virtual servers.  The issue was with the flash player to download.  As I mentioned above the NPAPI is no longer used.  When we downloaded the "Adobe Flash Player 64 PPAPI" and installed it on both virtual servers we were able to complete the installs.

  As for the comment of why not install 6.7 it's because it's not approved for us yet.

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