Access the ESXi server interface from an external location.

[etheral]

We're going on vacation and need to be able to access our home server. We currrently have a website hosted on one of our vms so how would i configure this to work if 443 and 80 are already being used to connect to a website? Is there some way to disable https and use http with a different port? Thanks in advance.

[daphnissov]

You should never expose your ESXi host (or vCenter) to the Internet. The best thing is to use a VPN solution or, at the least, a secure remote access tool to a different system in your network that has access to the host.

[etheral]

so if i setup a windows vm on my esxi server then i could just rdp into that so that i can access my local network from that vm?

[daphnissov]

You possibly could, but now you're exposing RDP to the Internet (another protocol unsuitable to be exposed). The safest (and most standard) way of accessing sensitive internal network infrastructure (such as ESXi/vSphere) is via VPN, and that's what I would recommend here.

[HassanAlKak88]

I agree with suggestions to not expose your vCenter or Hosts to Internet. and also don't expose any server through RDP.

And also I agree to use the VPN connection as a perfect solution to your request.

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

Cheers,

VCIX6-NV|VCP-NV|VCP-DC|

[golddiggie]

How are you connecting to the web site now (from outside your LAN)?? If you have a static home IP address (for the internet side) and have a domain name routing to that address, do you have your router/firewall forwarding requests coming in on 80 or 443 to the local IP address of the web server?

Also, what reason are you thinking you'll need to connect to the ESXi host (or vCenter) server?

If you have a router with VPN capabilities, then set that up for access. If not, then if you open up ports, and perform alternative forwarding, you could leave yourself open to attack.

At one point, may years back, I hosted a web site and ftp site in my home lab (could connect from outside my home network). I used the DYNDNS service to forward URL requests to those VMs (they would forward to ports I specified, and then my router would do port forwarding to the correct target). I'm no longer doing that since it's safer, easier, better to use an externally hosted website. Plus, with DropBox, Google Drive and OneDrive, I have plenty of space to put things I MIGHT need to gain access to while not at home.

If you feel you need to connect to the host due to the website server needing reboots often, then you have something very wrong with that VM that should be fixed. In the years I ran a website from home, I very rarely rebooted it (it was running Linux). I had things go offline more often from power outages than needing to reboot the VM.