VMware plans to deprecate the Flash-based vSphere Web Client with the next numbered release (not update release) of vSphere. The next version of vSphere will be the terminal release for which vSphere Web Client will be available.
The vSphere GUIs, including the vSphere Web Client and HTML5-based vSphere Client, are tools that are used every day by IT to manage the operation of their virtual data center. VMware is constantly striving to make these tools performant and easy to use. However, with the vSphere Web Client, customers were frustrated because it was based on Flash technology that resulted in less than ideal performance and constant update requirements. Additionally, Adobe has recently announced plans to deprecate Flash.
It has always been VMware’s intention to eventually replace the vSphere Web Client with a modern GUI administration tool. The HTML5-based vSphere Client is that worthy successor. The vSphere Client was introduced first in the Fling, then supported with vSphere 6.5 and has now been in customer hands for 1.5 years and production tested for over 9 months. Since its introduction, the vSphere Client has received overwhelmingly positive responses from the vSphere community and customer base. Customers have said things like:
“Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank … for creating this [vSphere Client] interface, my god it is nice to use :-)”
“If VMware can hold its various teams to the high standard set by the [vSphere Client], it should have nothing to worry about for years to come.”
With the recently released vSphere 6.5 Update 1, the vSphere Client got even better and is now able to support most of the frequently performed operations. With each iteration of the vSphere Client additional improvements and functionality are being added. By the time the vSphere Web Client is deprecated, the vSphere Client will be full featured but with significantly better responsiveness and usability. You will not be left with an incomplete toolset!
The vSphere Client will be the primary GUI administration tool for vSphere environments starting in the next release. Customers should start transitioning over to the vSphere Client if they have not already done so as the vSphere Web Client will no longer be available after the next vSphere release.
We post this blog now to give customers a fair warning and ample time to prepare for the eventual vSphere Web Client deprecation. This also gives customers a chance to express their concerns both online and at VMworld. At VMworld, customers will have many opportunities to learn more about the vSphere Client in various breakout sessions, labs, and of course by speaking with the experts in the Solutions Exchange.
Some key sessions at VMworld 2017 are listed below:
vSphere Clients Roadmap: HTML5 Client, Host Client, and Web Client
Technical – Intermediate [US: SER1411BU | EU: SER1411BE]
vSphere Client (HTML5) has been growing and evolving in public view, quickly incorporating customer feedback and adding functionality.
Discussion of vSphere Web Client (HTML5) and the Transition Experience
Technical – Intermediate [US: SER1792GU | EU: SER1792GE]
Group Discussion Come provide feedback directly to the product management team on the VMware vSphere Web Client (HTML5) released in VMware vSphere 6.5, which has also been released weekly in Fling form.
Acting as One: Plug in to vSphere
Technical – Advanced [US Only: SER3101PU]
Panel Discussion If you have ever wondered how to deploy and update multiple solutions with the VMware vSphere client, test custom solutions without having to set up complex infrastructures, transition from flex to HTML plug-ins, or run plug-ins without affecting vSphere client performance, you’ll want to hear from our panel of developers, who are working to provide a seamless experience for solutions integrating with the new vSphere HTML client.
Additional Resources
Table of Contents
Few will deny the impact VMware had on modern virtualization technology environment and the Palo Alto software company leading role in the revolution involving thousands of server farms in recent years. An infrastructural change that also had an huge impact on many system administrators, who suddenly found themselves eager to learn and manage the logics behind the maintenance, backup and administration of either the Virtual Machines and their Hypervisors.
These issues are being mostly handled by using the vSphere Client, which is a free software released by VMware enabling SA to connect to VM Hypervisor systems and manage them. If you stumbled upon this page, chances are you know how difficult can be to retrieve the download links of the vSphere Client’s builds, each one required to connect to the corresponding vSphere release. This list comes to the rescue, including the download links for a wide number of available vSphere Client for Windows in the most likely case you’ll need them.
The list has been updated to include the current vSphere latest version, which is 6.0.
Happy download!
vSphere 4.1
vSphere 5.0
vSphere 5.1
vSphere 5.5
vSphere 6.0
Setup issues on Windows 8
If you’re unable to install older versions of the vSphere Client on Windows 8 or 8.1, I suggest you to take a look to this post who handles a common compatibility issue.
WebClient
If you don’t want to install the Windows Client you can always use the WebClient, compatible with all modern browsers: take a look at this great official guide to learn how to use it.
During VMworld Europe in Barcelona, VMware has announced that vSphere 6.5 will be available in Q4 2016. Today they made the bits available for everyone to download. VMware vSphere 6.5 is now GA.
VMware vSphere 6.5 Release Notes and Download Links
- VMware vCenter Server 6.5 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5.0 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware Virtual SAN Witness Appliance 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.0.0 for vCenter [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vSphere Data Protection 6.1.3 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vSphere Replication 6.5 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vSphere Management Assistant 6.5 (vMA) [Download]
- VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.0.0 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.0.0 for NSX [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.4 [Release Notes][Download]
- VMware Guest SDK 10.1.0 [Download]
- VMware Open Virtualization Format Tool 4.2.0 [Download]
- VMware Virtual SAN Management SDK 6.5.0 [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for Java [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for Perl [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for Python [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for REST [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for Ruby [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation SDK 6.5 for .NET [Download]
- VMware vSphere Automation Java SDK 6.5 for Workbench IS [Download]
- VMware vSphere Command Line Interface 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vSphere Perl SDK 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vSphere Virtual Disk Development Kit 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vSphere Web Client SDK 6.5 [Download]
- VMware Workbench IS 3.5.7 [Download]
- vSphere Automation SDK for .NET 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vSphere Management Java SDK 6.5 for Workbench IS [Download]
- VMware vSphere Management SDK 6.5 [Download]
- VMware vSphere SNMP MIBs 6.5 [Download]
20 month development time
Since vSphere 6.0 VMware started to extend major release cycles. However, vSphere 6.0 still had some serious issues. With 614 days, the development time of vSphere 6.5 was over 20 month. vSphere 6.5 had a long closed and open beta phase to hunt for bugs. Let's hope for smooth upgrades in the next couple of weeks.
ESX | Release Date | Days since prior release |
6.5 | 2016-11-15 | 614 |
6.0 | 2015-03-12 | 536 |
5.5 | 2013-09-22 | 376 |
5.1 | 2012-09-11 | 384 |
5.0 | 2011-08-24 | 407 |
4.1 | 2010-07-13 | 418 |
4.0 | 2009-05-21 | 456 |
3.5 | 2008-02-20 | 615 |
3.0 | 2006-06-15 | 563 |
2.5 | 2004-11-29 | 244 |
2.1 | 2004-03-30 | 253 |
2.0 | 2003-07-21 | 434 |
1.5 | 2002-05-13 | 416 |
1.0 | 2001-03-23 |
VMware ESX History Diagram
Related posts:
vSphere 6.5 brings with it significant changes to the vCenter Server management clients including the vSphere Web Client and new HTML5 based vSphere Client. A detailed FAQ can be found here in this KB article; a summary of the changes are given below in this blog post.
vSphere Client (HTML5):
VMware agrees that Flash is not the solution for the long-term. Our long-term direction is to utilize HTML5. In vSphere 6.5, we have released a supported version of an HTML5 based web client which we call “vSphere Client”. The vSphere Client is part of the vCenter Server (both appliance and Windows) and is configured to work out of the box. You can access this client by this URL – https://<FQDN-or-IP-Address-of-VC>/ui. This HTML5 based client was originally released as a fling back in March 2016 and has been releasing a new version every week.
- You can access the list of features/functionality not available in the vSphere Client released in 6.5 by the link in the vCenter Server’s landing page (https://<FQDN-or-IP-Address-of-VC>/), which links to this article
- Another source to check if a feature is available in the vSphere Client is the changelog section of the Flings page. The vSphere Client released in version 6.5 is using fling bits as of v2.7.
Figure 1: HTML5 based vSphere Client
Updates to the supported version of the vSphere Client will probably be released on a quarterly cadence, but we will continue to release new features every week via the Fling. Note that Administrators may look to the vSphere Client Fling to get the latest features but the Fling remains UNSUPPORTED. It will take some time for the vSphere Client to achieve feature parity, but we are also continually working to make the vSphere Client a great user experience. Progress can be seen on the Fling site as it develops, and is the best measure available. We encourage you to try the Fling and give us feedback on any missing features you want to see sooner using the built-in feedback tool.
vSphere Web Client (Flash/Flex):
The vSphere Client (HTML5) released in vSphere 6.5 has a subset of features of the vSphere Web Client (Flash/Flex). Until the vSphere Client achieves feature parity, we might continue to enhance and/or add new features to vSphere Web Client.
In vSphere 6.5, we have made significant improvements to enhance the user experience of the vSphere Web Client. Some of the key changes to this client are:
- Live Refresh improvements
Figure 2: Live refresh enabled sections of vSphere Web Client
One of the prior challenges for vSphere Administrators was that they were unable to see the real time status for their environment, causing them to continue using the Legacy C# Client or abuse the Refresh button – both of which can cause extreme load on vCenter Server. Live Refresh in the vSphere Web Client 6.5 allows vSphere Administrators to now see the current state of the inventory. For example, VM power states and tasks for all users now update in real time allowing the vSphere Web Client to act as a source of truth for the state of the environment. Most of the views (Inventory tree, Alarms, Summary, Lists and Tasks) reflect the near instantaneous updates.
- Client Integration Plugin (CIP) removal
Figure 3: Deploy OVF Template wizard without CIP showing the warning sign for additional file selection.
In vSphere 6.5, the vSphere Web Client will have no dependency on CIP as it exists today. There is also no dependency on CIP to install and deploy the vCenter Server Appliance,which allows us to deliver a cross-platform installer that runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Not all CIP functionality could be replaced by native browser functions, however. The “Use Windows Session Authentication” functionality as well as SmartCard login require the new slimmed down Enhanced Authentication Plugin (EAP). All other functions (File upload/download, Deploy OVA/OVF, Content Library import/Export) are replicated without CIP and function natively in a web browser. It is important to note that OVF deploy functionality has slightly changed with the removal of CIP. A user has to select all the related files of the OVF (.ovf, .mf, .vmdk unlike just the .ovf file before) as shown in Figure 3 above. This change is due to technical limitations on accessing local files by the browser.
- Navigation improvements
Figure 4: Navigation improvements in vSphere Web Client
The default view in the vSphere Web Client is now Hosts and Clusters instead of the Home page. We also stick with the Inventory Tree through other actions such as performing searches to provide a more intuitive and seamless experience.
The Related Objects sub tabs have been flattened and brought up as top level tabs, thus reducing the number of clicks required to go to the VMs or other objects.
Tab reorganization – the Manage tab is renamed to Configure and sub-tabs under the Manage tab are now flattened which also reduces number of clicks.
- Custom attributes
Figure 5: Edit custom attributes dialog which can be invoked from the Summary page portlet
Based on popular demand, we have brought back the custom attributes to the vSphere Web Client. You can view and edit the custom attributes in the summary page portlets.
- Performance enhancements –
vSphere Web Client performance has been enhanced to improve the overall experience. A few of the areas which we extensively optimized are Login time, VM Configuration (Edit Settings), VM Migration and VM Provisioning (New VM, Clone VM).
Legacy C# Client:
Metode penelitian kualitatif dan kuantitatif sugiyono. VMware announced in May 2016 that the Legacy C# Client (aka thick client, desktop client, etc) will no longer be available with the vSphere 6.5 release. The Legacy C# Client connection to vCenter Server 6.5 or ESXi 6.5 host is untested and is not supported. (Reference – Goodbye vSphere Client for Windows (C#) – Hello HTML5)
The Legacy C# Client will still be supported with all previous non-EOL’d vSphere versions. For example, the Legacy C# Client will still be available and continue to work with vSphere 5.5 and 6.0. Starting with vSphere 6.5 onwards, we will not ship a newer version of this client.
For more details about the benefits of vSphere Web Client over the Legacy C# Client, refer question #6 and #8 in this KB article.
Dennis Lu covered this topic on changes to vSphere clients in his roadmap presentation at the VMworld. You can watch the recording of that session here:
We still need your help:
Figure 6: vSphere Client’s built in feedback tool
We have made a lot of improvements to the vSphere Web Client and the new HTML5 based vSphere Client based on your feedback. The vSphere Client comes with a built in feedback tool (Smiley icon on the top right corner) you can use to send us direct feedback. All of the UX, product and engineering teams monitor this feedback, and use this data to prioritize next set of features and make improvements. Hearing your voices through this tool and other channels has helped drive the vSphere Client in the right direction. Even if you don’t have vSphere 6.5 yet, you can use the Fling to manage vCenter 6.0 and provide us feedback.
The vSphere Web Client lets you connect to a vCenter Server system to manage an ESXi host through a browser.
If an earlier version of the vSphere Web Client is installed, this procedure upgrades the vSphere Web Client.
vCenter Server 5.1 supports connection between vCenter Server and vCenter Server components by IP address only if the IP address is IPV4-compliant. To connect to a vCenter Server system in an IPv6 environment, you must use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or host name of the vCenter Server. The best practice is to use the FQDN, which works in all cases, instead of the IP address, which can change if assigned by DHCP.
■ | Verify that the system has an Internet connection. |
Verify that the system meets the software requirements for the vSphere Web Client. See vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client Software Requirements. | |
■ | Before you install or upgrade any vSphere product, synchronize the clocks of all machines on the vSphere network. See Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network. |
Install vCenter Single Sign On, or upgrade to the current version. | |
■ | Verify that the vSphere Web Client and vCenter Server are registered to the same vCenter Single Sign On server, to ensure that the vSphere Web Client can access the vCenter Server inventory. |
Close all browsers before installing or uninstalling the vSphere Web Client. | |
■ | Log in as a member of the Administrators group on the host machine, with a user name that does not contain any non-ASCII characters. |
If you are upgrading the vSphere Web Client, and you plan to use it with any version 5.0.x vCenter Server instance that was registered to a version 5.0 vSphere Web Client without accepting the SSL thumbprint, see Version 5.1 vSphere Web Client Fails to Connect to Version 5.0.x vCenter Server. |
2 | Select VMware vSphere®Web Client and click Install. |
Follow the prompts in the installation wizard to choose the installer language, and agree to the end user patent and license agreements. | |
4 | Accept or change the default port settings. |
Enter the information to register the vSphere Web Client with vCenter Single Sign On. The vCenter Single Sign On administrator user name is admin@System-Domain, and the password must match the password you entered for the administrator user when you installed vCenter Single Sign On. The Lookup Service URL takes the form https://SSO_host_FQDN_or_IP:7444/lookupservice/sdk, where 7444 is the default vCenter Single Sign On HTTPS port number. Your entry should match the entry you made when you installed vCenter Single Sign On. If you entered a different port number when you installed vCenter Single Sign On, use that port number. | |
6 | Click Install. |
Start the vSphere Web Client by doing one of the following actions. | In a browser, go to https://vSphere_Web_Client_host_name_or_IP:9443/vsphere-client. |
From the Windows Start menu, select Programs > VMWare > VMware vSphere Web Client > vSphere Web Client. |