Can ESXi's built-in VNC Server be modified? Or, are there better options?

[davidoneal]

Can ESXi's built-in VNC Server be modified? Specifically the Java client.

If so, is there any documentation? I couldn't find anything about VNC in the vSphere SDKs.

Or, are there better options that anyone can recommend?

Goal - We are trying to develop a vSphere cloud, to provide our learners with URLs for console access to desktop and server VMs over the Internet. Remote control through the hypervisor, rather than the guest OS is preferred, as we would like to allow learners to reboot VMs and watch/stay connected.

Any help/guidance is appreciated. Thanks. Dave

[esloof]

You might want to check out the vmClient - http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/categories/27-vmClient

[davidoneal]

Thanks Eric. I had seen your client before. It does look quite nice, but I need something browser based.

Many of our learners cannot install any apps, but seemingly have Java and Flash installed as part of their locked down desktops. That's why I thought the built-in ESXi VNC Server might be a nice fit. After further investigation, it looks like the Java client is disabled or removed. I can't seem to find any documentation for the ESXi VNC Server.   😞

Do you know of any commercial VDI solutions (I guess like View) that also allow/can do server VM guests?

[lamw]

There's a few VNC options that can be configured per VM within the .vmx file found here - http://www.sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-advanced.html

RemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled                = "true"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "<port>"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.password = "password"

RemoteDisplay.vnc.ip
RemoteDisplay.vnc.key
RemoteDisplay.vnc.keyMap
RemoteDisplay.vnc.keyMapFile
RemoteDisplay.vnc.zlibLevel
RemoteDisplay.vncWheelStep

but the actual VNC server configuration is most likely not exposed or documented for you to modify. The best option if you're trying to use a browser is leverage the remote console, if you're using vCenter, you can generate URLs for your users to connect to specific VMs and this can be done programmatically, here is a vSphere SDK for Perl implementation to do such and you can easily adapt this example using other vSphere SDKs -

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10809

[davidoneal]

Thank you lamw. I was thinking/moving along those lines, but read another post that said the number of remote consoles was limited to only 10 or 20. If that's true it would not be enough for us.

Are you aware of any commercial solutions that are browser based, and can give console access to desktop and server VM guests over the Internet?

[lamw]

I'm not sure what the maximum number of remote connections you can have per vCenter, but per the configuration maximum, the per VM the limit for vSphere 4.1 is 40 - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_config_max.pdf

You may want to contact VMware Support to inquire about this, this may even be configurable