vSphere HTML 5 Web Client

The vSphere HTML5 Web Client is here! It is written using HTML5 and Javascript

The following features are available at the moment

• VM Power Operations (common cases)
• VM Edit Settings (simple CPU, Memory, Disk changes)
• VM Console
• VM and Host Summary pages
• VM Migration (only to a Host)
• Clone to Template/VM
• Create VM on a Host (limited)
• Additional monitoring views (Performance charts, Tasks, Events)
• Global Views (Recent tasks, Alarms–view only)

This Fling has been designed to work with your existing vSphere 6.0 environments. The new client is deployed as a new VM from the downloadable OVA.  Currently the installation instructions are command line-based, but VMware are working on a GUI installation and plan to release it as an update to this Fling once it is ready.

Download and Information

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client

System requirements

• 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 14 GB
• An existing VC6.0 installation (VCSA or Windows). The H5 client appliance will need 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPUs and the hard disk will grow up to 14 GB
• Recommended browsers: Chrome, Firefox, IE11. Others may work, with some functional or layout issues.
• Windows vCenter: Was tested with a vCenter on Windows Server 2012 R2, but should work with other versions as well.

Instructions

Note: I have a Windows 2012 R2 server running vCenter Server 6 and a Windows 2012 R2 server running an external PSC version 6. There are different instructions for running different vCenter/PSC setups.

First of all download the H5 Client Deployment Instructions and Helpful Hints.

• Download the OVA and server-configure.bat

• In vCenter, go to File > Deploy OVF Template

• Check OVF Template details

• Accept the License Agreement
• Put in a name and Location

• Choose a host and cluster

• Select the Resource Pool if any

• Choose your storage

• Check Disk Format

• Check VM Networking and choose a Port Group

• Choose IP Address allocation

• Put in an IP address

• Click Finish

• I then had to create an IP Pool in vCenter
• Click on the Datacenter object > IP Pools

• Click on the tabs and fill in the relevant information. In my case I needed to add some DNS and Association information to associate this resource pool with my networks and in particular the network my HTML 5 client is going to be on

• Power on the VM
• If you click on the console, you should see the below screen

• SSH or WINScp as root into the H5 client appliance VM (Note: Username is root and password is demova)
• Create the following folders

• Copy the provided ‘server-configure.bat’ to any directory on the vCenter and PSC for Windows. (This file is one of the Fling downloads on the top left) NOTE: If you have installed vCenter into any folder other than default (%PROGRAMFILES%), the script may not find the appropriate files. You will need to edit the file and replace the two references to %PROGRAMFILES% with the appropriate path so that the “KEYTOOL” and “VECS_CLI” paths line up. These two variables are at the top of the file.
• You may also need to change this at the end of the file to the correct path (this is for the ds.properties file): SET CLIENT_DIR=%PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client
• My PSC was all installed on the C Drive but I had my vCenter installed on the D Drive so I had to change the file below which is highlighted in yellow to my correct path

• Run the server-configure.bat on your PSC server as Administrator
• The store.jks and webclient.properties file will be created
• Ignore the Creating ds.properties error message

• Copy the files store.jks and webclient.properties which are generated to the below locations
• /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/store.jks
• /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/vsphere-client/webclient.properties
• In the Windows VC machine, open an Administrator Command Prompt and run the ‘server-configure.bat’ script. The following files will get generated:

• Copy the ds.properties file to H5 client virtual appliance at the following location
• /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/config/ds.properties
• Log into the H5 appliance and run this command to start the server:
• /etc/init.d/vsphere-client start

• It should come up and say started in xxx seconds

• Once the installation steps above are completed, point your browser to this URL, and log in with your normal vCenter credentials:
• https://H5_Appliance_Address:9443/ui