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Configuring New vSphere Web Client Session Timeout

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Just like you could in the old vSphere C# Client, users can also configure a session timeout for the new vSphere Web Client in the latest release of vSphere 5.1. This not only ensures that idle sessions automatically disconnect after a certain period of time but also helps reduce the resources consumed on the vCenter Server as each session allocates a certain amount of resources.

To configure the session timeout, you will need to login to the server running the vSphere Web Client service (which is usually your vCenter Server) and find the webclient.properties file and change the default timeout and then restart the vSphere Web Client service. For the VCSA, the default timeout value is 120 minutes and I assume it is the same default for the Windows vCenter Server.

Step 1 - Locate the webclient.properties file:

    VCSA 5.x

/var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties

    VCSA 6.x

/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties

    Windows vCenter Server 5.x

%ALLUSERPROFILE%\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client\webclient.properties

    Windows vCenter Server 6.x

%ALLUSERPROFILE%\VMware\vSphere Web Client\webclient.properties

Step 2 - Un-comment and change session.timeout value to desired value:

session.timeout = 120

Step 3 - Restart the vSphere Web Client Service:

/etc/init.d/vsphere-client restart

You will need to restart the vSphere Web Client service for the changes to go into effect. For the Windows vCenter Server, just restart the vSphere Web Client service and for the VCSA, run the above command.

In my lab, I configured the time out to be 1 minute, once the session has gone idle for the configured period, you will automatically be logged out and brought back to login page with the following message:

 

Specifying Default Domains for vSphere Web Client Login

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If you add an additional identity source to vCenter SSO, such as Active Directory during vCenter Server setup, you might have noticed that you need to specify the full domain name and user id to be able to login to the vSphere Web Client.

It took me awhile to figure out where to set the default domain as I thought it would have been in the VCSA web management interface as I deployed my VCSA using an automated script. I thought I share this quick tidbit in case someone was running into a similar issue.

To specify a default domain for one of your identity sources, you will need to login to vSphere Web Client as "root" or an administrator who has access to the vCenter SSO Configurations. Click on Administration tab and then to Configuration under "Sign-On and Discovery" on the left hand side of the screen.

You should see your AD identity source at the top as well as the two default identity source provided by vCenter SSO (these can not be removed). If you want to add an identity source as a default domain, you will need to highlight your identity source and then select the CD icon with the arrow, which will add that to list of default domains at the bottom of the screen. 

Once your domain is listed at the bottom, you will need to perform one additional step which is to actually save the configuration by clicking on the little "disk" icon. I did not realize this until I logged out and nothing changed.

Note: By default, when you add to the default domain list, you will append to the very end of the list. You have the ability to arrange the order by highlighting the domain and using the up/down arrows.

Go ahead and log out and log back in and now you only have to specify the username as the default domain will automatically be used.

How to Generate VM Remote Console URL for vSphere 5.x Web Client

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There was a question last week on the VMTN community forums about generating a shortcut URL to a virtual machine's remote console in the new vSphere 5 Web Client. For those of you who have used the vCenter's Web Access may recall the option to generate a desktop shortcut to a particular virtual machine's remote console which includes ability to obfuscate the generated URL that could then be provided to your users.

With the updated vSphere 5 Web Client, there is not an option to generate the remote console URL but there is a link that you could manually copy and provide to your users. This of course is not ideal but after a tinkering, I was able to figure out how to generate the remote console URL for any virtual machine in the new vSphere 5.x Web Client.

I also created a vSphere SDK for Perl script awhile back called generateVMRemoteConsoleURL.pl which helps users automate the URL generation for vSphere 4.x environments, it has now been updated to support vSphere 5.

Here is an example of what the URL looks like for vSphere 5.0:

https://reflex.primp-industries.com:9443/vsphere-client/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8:VirtualMachine:vm-1506

Here is an example of what the URL looks like for vSphere 5.1 & 5.5:

https://reflex.primp-industries.com:9443/vsphere-clien/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=urn:vmomi:VirtualMachine:vm-1506:EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8

There are basicallythree important components to the URL:

  • Hostname of the vCenter Server - reflex.primp-industries.com
  • The vCenter instanceUUID which used to uniquely identify a vCenter Server - EE26E7F6-591B-4256-BD7A-402E5AC9E0A8
  • The MoRef ID of the virtual machine - vm-1506

Since the Web Client does not support URL customization, you only need to provide the name of a virtual machine to the generateVMRemoteConsoleURL.pl script and the URL will be generated for you.

Here is an example execution of the script:

Now you can take the URL output from the script and enter it into a supported web browser. You will then be asked to authenticate before it allows you to access the remote console of a particular virtual machine.

You can now provide links to specific virtual machines