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ESXi Embedded Host Client Fling updated to v2

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The response and feedback from our customers on the recently released HTML5 Embedded Host Client for ESXi Fling has just been absolutely phenomenal. Having only been released for a little less than two weeks ago, it has also become the #1 Fling on the VMware Labs which is an amazing accomplishment in it itself as well as to the awesome work from both the Engineers: Etienne and George. 

Having said that, both Etienne and George have not stopped and have been quite busy in the last couple of weeks. They have been working adding new features based on feedback from our customers as well as any bug fixes that have been reported. Today, I am please to announce that they have just released version2 of the Embedded Host Client for ESXi which you can find here. If you have v1 installed, you can perform an "update" by running the following ESXCLI command:

[root@mini:~] esxcli software vib update -v /esxui-3015331.vib
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_esx-ui_0.0.2-0.1.3015331
VIBs Removed: VMware_bootbank_esx-ui_0.0.2-0.1.2976804
VIBs Skipped:

In addition to the new features listed below in v2, I would also like to mention we now have both an installable VIB as well as an offline bundle as some of you have been asking for which will allow you to use vSphere Update Manager (VUM) to automate the deployment of the Embedded Host Client across your ESXi hosts.

What's new in v2:

  • Host
    •  Improved host performance monitoring UI
    • Composite CPU/memory figure
  • Virtual Machines
    • VM Snapshot support.
    • In-browser VM console full screen support.
    • In-browser VM console 'shrink’ support.
    • Create Wizard: Mac OS guest creation has been enabled.
  • Storage
    • Completed file browser (copy/move/delete/create directory/upload/download)
    • Right click on VMX file in browser to register VM
    • Mount/create NFS datastores
    • Create VMFS datastore (currently only on disks that don't have a partition table)
    • Extend VMFS datastore (currently only onto disks that don't have a partition table)
    • Mount/Unmount VMFS datastore
  • Networking
    • Firewall ruleset listing (currently read-only)
  • General Features
    • Double click title bar to enlarge dialogs and wizards
    • Alt + drag in a dialog or wizard to resize
    • Locale override (we still only support en-US at this stage)
    • Customizable session timeout.

I have already deployed the latest version in my lab and I have to say, the new features rock. One tiny little feature which I really like is a session timeout count down which appears on your browser tab of the Embedded Host Client when left idle.

Screen_Shot_2015-08-24_at_9.23.29_AM_stream
In my opinion, the attention to details both big and small is what really differentiates this UI from any other that I have used and really provides for a fantastic user experience. Keep up the great work guys!

If you have any feedback, please leave a comment either on my blog or on the Fling site and who knows, your request might just make it into the next release 🙂

Quick Tip - Pre-filled credentials in the vSphere 6.0 Web Client

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This past weekend I was finishing up a couple of demo recordings for my VMworld sessions in case the live demos fail for whatever reason, which has happened to me in the past. A few of the demos involve the vSphere Web Client UI and I thought instead of wasting time and potentially fat fingering credentials up on stage, I would try to do everything I can to remove any potential hiccups. In vSphere 6.0, the vCenter Single Sign-On page is now completely in HTML and this not only means you can customize the UI as I have shown here but you can also do some other neat tricks with it.

I decided to update the HTML page to automatically pre-fill both the SSO username and password, so that when I need to login to the vSphere Web Client, I just have to hit the tab key and then click on the login button.

prefilled-credentials
Disclaimer: Outside of a home lab or demo purposes, there is really no good reason for this. I can already hear Mike Foley sighing right now 😉 This also means that anyone who knows the address of your vSphere Web Client can just login, so you may want to only pre-fill the username and still type out the password in case you are concerned with that.

To pre-fill the value for the SSO username and/or password, you will need to edit the following file:

  • Windows VC: C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\runtime\VMwareSTSService\webapps\websso\WEB-INF\views\unpentry.jsp
  • VCSA: /usr/lib/vmware-sso/vmware-sts/webapps/websso/WEB-INF/views/unpentry.jsp

For pre-filling the username, you will need to add a "value" property along with its actual value in the following section:

<input id="username" class="margeTextInput" type="text" value="*protected email*"/>

For pre-filling the password, you will need to add a "value" property along with its actual value in the following section:

<input id="password" class="margeTextInput" type="password" value="VMware1!"/>

Once you have saved your changes, you can then reload the browser and you should see that the vSphere Web Client now has both the username and password automatically pre-filled when the webpage loads.

VMware Tools for Nested ESXi updated to v1.2

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I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we have a minor update to the VMware Tools for Nested ESXi Fling (esx-tools-for-esxi-9.7.2-0.0.5911061.i386.vib) and you can find the list of changes below.

What's new in version 1.2:

  • Larger resource pool for programs started using the VIX/Guest Operations API (resolves this issue)
  • Now supports Guest Time Synchronization
  • No longer require -f flag to install the VIB

If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment here or on the Flings page.