How to mange ESXi Host 6.5 we did not setup

[SLtech]

Have used Hyper V mostly, not 100% sure which VMWare software i will need to assign the ESXi to be able to manage the VMs, and if i can get away with using a trial as I will be migrating these to a different Hyper V Host.

I have local ESXi 6.5 login credentials,however for some reason they work on the physical server itself, but are not working on the webportal to the same ESXi host. The old IT said they dis-joined from their remote VCenter that was managing this ESXi host. ESXi is Unlicensed.

Do i need vCenter or because its 6.5 can I manage the Server VMs from the webportal at the ESXi IP address? "Assuming i can get logged into webportal"

Can I just install a trial vCenter Server 6.5 on a PC or Server temporarily assign the ESXi to it and be able to manage it from there? Any gotchas or thing i will need to do this? From what im seeing on VMware preqs for the software could even be installed on a local pc?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[daphnissov]

When you say "manage the VMs" what exactly are you looking to do here? And you say you'll be migrating these to Hyper-V? Can you explain what your end goal is with this ESXi host?

[SLtech]

End goal is to transfer to Hyper V.

Immediate goal is to gain access to manage the Server VMs and be able to to transfer them.

[MohamadAlhousse]

Hi SLtech​

As long as you can login to the ESXi host UI client (through an HTML5 browser), you can manage the VMs from there if it is a single host only.

In all cases, if you want to manage the VMs from vCenter as well, you can just intall vCenter VM on that host, then create a datacenter on that vCenter and add host to it. At this point, you will be able to see the VMs running on the host in the vCenter inventory. You can get a trial license for ESXi and vCenter from the below link:

Evaluate VMware Products

Regards,

[daphnissov]

If you have ESXi 6.5, can you login to the ESXi embedded host client at https://<FQDN>/ui?

[SLtech]

So if i can get signed into the webportal i wont need to install anything or worry about Vcenter?

Whats odd is I can login into the ESXi 6.5, sitting in front of it, but when trying the webportal with the same credentials says incorrect username/password.

The old IT company, said the following about the credentials not working on the web:

"It has to. There is no other way. I removed host from vCenter. Lockdown mode was never enabled. I double check credentials (using http access btw) before I gave it to You. The same pass is for console and web. I don’t know why it doesn’t work."

[daphnissov]

You may not need vCenter in your case. Check the host and ensure lockdown mode is disabled. Access the DCUI and enter your root credentials, then check and see if it was enabled. The fact that it was joined to a vCenter and now no longer is has nothing to do with the inability to login to the host client (what you call the "web portal").

[SLtech]

Alright so if i was able to login at the DCUI but not at the host client through https://<ip>/ui, most likely its in lockdown mode, even though the old IT company says its not? I will check when i am onsite again.

[daphnissov]

That's usually the explanation, yes, but there could be others. The first thing to check is lockdown mode.