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How to change the default HTML5 VM console port in vSphere 5.5?

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A couple of weeks back I wrote an article on how to generate a pre-authenticated HTML5 VM console link in vSphere 5.5 which allows a user to access the new HTML5 VM console from any operating system including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. In the article I also provided a script to automatically generate the HTML5 VM console URL given a VM name which looks something like the following:

http://reflex.primp-industries.com:7331/console/?vmId=vm-23&vmName=VCSA&host=reflex.primp-industries.com&sessionTicket=cst-VCT-5254c455-4340-2185-e149-01ce44b146e1--tp-4A-88-17-7C-F5-D0-79-E6-9D-A1-E3-83-97-52-97-EA-E5-D3-D8-07&thumbprint=4A:88:17:7C:F5:D0:79:E6:9D:A1:E3:83:97:52:97:EA:E5:D3:D8:07

If you have tried out the new HTML5 VM console which is enabled only for a Mac OS X system using the new vSphere Web Client 5.5, you may have noticed it opens up a connection on port 7331 by default. However, this port is actually dynamic and could change if the underlying operating system hosting the vSphere Web Client is already in use. If you are running on the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance), there is a good chance that this will be the default port but for a Windows based installation, that may or may not be the case.

If you wish to find out what the default port is, you can take a look at the vSphere Web Client log file and search for the keyword "Djetty.port". On the VCSA, the log is located in /var/log/vmware/vsphere-client/logs/vsphere_client_virgo.log and here is a screenshot of what that looks like:

To change the default port, you will need to edit the vSphere Web Client configuration property file located in /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties for the VCSA and there is an equilvent for a Windows system as well. You will need to add the following entry:

html.console.port = PORT-NUMBER

Once you are done, you will need to save your changes and restart the vSphere Web Client service. On the VCSA, to restart the vSphere Web Client you will need to run the following command:

/etc/init.d/vsphere-client restart

Now if we go back to the vSphere Web Client and open the VM console on a Mac OS X system or generate a URL using the script, you should see the HTML5 VM console is now connecting to the new port.

VMworld Barcelona #NotSupported Tips/Tricks for vSphere 5.5 Slides Posted

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I hope everyone got back home quickly and safely from VMworld Barcelona (unlike myself for those of you who follow me on Twitter, took a bit longer than I had hoped). For those of you who attended my #NotSupported Tips/Tricks for vSphere 5.5 at VMworld Barcelona earlier in the week, I have posted my Sliderocket presentation below as well as the recording thanks to the vBrown Bag team. If you could not attend the session or did not go to VMworld you can view all vBrown Bag Tech Talk recordings by checking out this link here. I highly recommend you check out the ENTIRE presentation as there was an exciting announcement that I made at the VERY END of the presentation.

Disclaimer: I think it should be pretty obvious, but things discussed in the presentation is not officially supported by VMware. Use at your own risk.

I would like to thank everyone that attended my session, really enjoyed the crowd and the questions/discussions afterwards. I know you could have been else where such as the Solution Exchange with a nice beverage, so thank you all for attending and hopefully everyone enjoyed it. I would also like to give a big shout out to vBrown Bag team Jon Harris, Kyle Murray, Damian Karlson and Gregg Robertson for putting together such an awesome event up for the VMware community and for their assistance on quickly getting the AV all setup for my presentation.

Here is the presentation:

Here is the video recording:

Here is a couple of pictures from the audience:

Would you like MSSQL (Microsoft SQL Server) support for the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance)?

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Many of you know that I am a huge fan of the VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance), especially when it comes to a new deployment and how easy it is compared to the Windows version. I especially like how upgrades work for the VCSA by deploying a new VCSA and then performing a migration based upgrade to the new appliance. This provides a nice roll-back mechanism in case something happens and all I need to do is just power on the original VCSA to get the original environment up and running again.

Having said all this, I know the VCSA is still currently lacking a few features which may prevent customers from fully adopting the solution for their production workload. However, if you take a look a how far the VCSA has come from its initial release in vSphere 5.0 release, it has greatly improved and we continue to enhance it with every release. With release of vSphere 5.5, we now support the following configurations maximums:

ESXi Hosts Virtual Machines
Embedded vPostgres DB 100 3,000
External Oracle DB 1000 10,000

Even before vSphere 5.5 release, VMware has internally pushed the boundaries of the VCSA (vSphere 5.1) and the embedded vPostgres database by running one of the most dynamic and demanding workload in a very short amount of time which is the VMworld's Hands On Lab. This really goes to show the type of scale and performance the VCSA and the embedded vPostgres database can support.

One of the most frequent piece of feedback that I have heard from customers regarding the VCSA is to provide support for Microsoft SQL Server database. This request is quite understandable, especially for a Windows shop where you may already have a team of Database Administrators who are quite familiar with the operational and management aspects of maintaining a MSSQL database.

VMware is actually not opposed to supporting MSSQL for the VCSA which runs on SuSE Linux but the challenge in the past was the lack of a Microsoft ODBC driver for SLES. Well it turns out last year Mircosoft released a Community Tech Preview Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on SLES, however the driver is currently only a Tech Preview and to do justice for VMware customers, we would want to use a GA (General Available) driver which means that there would be full support from Microsoft.

If you would like the VCSA to have MSSQL support, you can help by providing this feedback to your local Microsoft representative or filing a feature request. The more customer demand we have for this, the more likelihood MSSQL DB support can become a reality.

In addition to providing feedback to Microsoft, I think it would also be useful to let our PMs know how important MSSQL DB support & the VCSA is to you which will also help with the prioritization of features. If you can help fill out this quick survey below, that would also be great.