Bug Report: IPv6 URL Breaks VM Console

[joel0m]

I would like to report this bug to VMware and I was told to post bug reports to this forum.  I have workarounds and do not need help troubleshooting any issues.

When using the ESXi web client through its IPv6 address (i.e. https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]), I am unable to open a VM console.  From the stack trace it looks like the constructor for Object.WMKS.WebSocket is treating any colon in the URL as a port, which works for IPv4, hostnames, and FQDNs, but not IPv6 addresses.

I also noticed that in the upper right it truncates the IPv6 address incorrectly where it says "root@[fe80".  And in the Chrome debugger there are many 404 responses for other assets at the URL "https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/proxy?url=https://[fe80/screen?id=6&ts=<redacted>".

Stack Trace:

Cause: SyntaxError: Failed to construct 'WebSocket': The URL 'wss://[fe80/ticket/<redacted>' is invalid.

Version: 2016.03.02

Build: 3617585

ESXi: 6.0.0

Exception stack:

Error: Failed to construct 'WebSocket': The URL 'wss://[fe80/ticket/<redacted>' is invalid.

    at Error (native)

    at Object.WMKS.WebSocket (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:283:16639)

    at _setupConnection (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:284:26707)

    at WMKS.VNCDecoder.connect (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:284:27850)

    at WMKS.widgetProto.connect (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:286:10065)

    at .connect (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:275:29758)

    at WMKS.CoreWMKS.connect (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:288:15220)

    at https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:288:22640

    at https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:206:9465

    at k.$eval (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:206:16492)

[elesueur]

Thanks for reporting this issue. We have resolved it in new versions of the Host Client.

Could you try the latest fling release? labs.vmware.com/flings/esxi-embedded-host-client

[joel0m]

Thank you for the reply.  The original issue has been fixed by the patch, but some new issues have arisen.  I am no longer able to connect to the HTTPS server with the link local IPv6 address of [fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68] in Chrome and IE, but it works in Firefox.  I can connect to the globally routable address (i.e. [2610:...) from Chrome and Firefox, but not Internet Explorer.

When using Chrome to visit the link local address I do not get the log in page.  It gets stuck on /ui/#/host with the vmware logo progress bar at 100%.

When using IE to visit either IPv6 address, the login times out once, but on the next try it logs in and throws the error below:

Cause: Error: Invalid argument.

Version: 1.4.0

Build: 3959074

ESXi: 6.0.0

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; Trident/7.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; rv:11.0) like Gecko

Exception stack:

Error: Invalid argument.

  at Ba (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:23404)

  at Wc (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:23747)

  at m (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:253:26793)

  at Anonymous function (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:253:25513)

  at Anonymous function (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:9455)

  at k.prototype.$eval (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:16481)

  at k.prototype.$digest (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:15039)

  at Anonymous function (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:254:16575)

  at e (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:253:5644)

  at Anonymous function (https://[fe80::21f:d0ff:fed4:3c68]/ui/scripts/main.js:253:7652)

[joel0m]

I just updated to UI 1.10.1 and the problem still persists.  Not being able to use the web interface over IPv6 is an inconvenience.  The DHCP server is out of my control and I can not get a static IPv4 address.  The IPv6 link local address was a nice way to manager the server when I didn't need a VM console, now I can't even do that.