Strange issue of the Vmware ESXi 6.5 web page password

[Ivy2010]

The problem is gone while I am writing this article. But I want to share the experience.

Every time I need to edit virtual machine's network settings, it shows the memory is minus something and I have to refresh the webpage to edit the settings. I figured it might be the browser issue, I change it from Firefox to Edge. I don't recall my password when I need to sign in the Edge browser. I can sign in from the Firefox. But I accidentally clear all the passwords when I try to see the password in Firefox's saved password. Now I am locked out.

I can SSH into the ESXi server and I can log in the console too. But no matter what I tried I can't log in to the webpage. I am sure my password is correct. I type it as a plain text in a notepad and copy/paste to avoid keyboard typing mistake.

Because some other reasons, I need to restart my computer. And then I can log in again.  I don't think my computer was blocked because I can keep trying and I got a username/password incorrect message. It doesn't look like I am blocked. And also I kept trying it, the blocking time should not be expired if there is a block.

The machine is in production environment and I was scared. I guess it's my computer problem but not the browser because I used two? It's strange.

[daphnissov]

It's probably a bug with the HTML5 embedded host client. What version are you running on this ESXi host?

[Ivy2010]

Do you mean the ESXi version? It's 6.5.

[daphnissov]

No, I mean the version of the embedded host client.

[Ivy2010]

sorry, I don't know how to see the version of the embedded host client. This is what  I found under Help - > About

Version:1.8.0

Build number:4516221

ESXi version:6.5.0

ESXi build number:4887370

[daphnissov]

Version 1.8.0 is for the ESXi HTML5 embedded host client. But your build of ESXi is horrendously outdated and missing lots and lots of patches. So I have two recommendations to make to be performed in this order:

1. Fully patch your ESXi host to U2. For instructions on how to do that, please do a search. This has been covered ad nauseum.
2. Update your ESXi embedded host client to the latest version of the Fling available here.

This should resolve your issues.

[Ivy2010]

Thank you very much. I will do it.

I am reading the vSphere Networking pdf document written by vmware I found from Google. I can't follow the instructions because I don't see many of the features in my esxi web client. I google and see some are "vmware vSphere Web Client" on the upper left corner of the page and mine is just "vmware ESXi". I am trying to add distributed switch but have no way to find it. My panel is so simple compare to those I google online.

Can you tell me if  I update the patch as you mention,  I will be able to use those features? Thank you again.

[daphnissov]

No, those features require vCenter Server. You only have a standalone ESXi host, so installing updates/patches will not help. You must purchase vCenter.