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Heads Up - ESXi 8.0 Host Client unable to attach existing virtual disk to VM

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A couple of days ago, I had received an email from a customer that after upgrading to ESXi 8.0, they were no longer able to attach an existing virtual disk (VMDK) to a VM using the ESXi Host Client, which is accessible by opening a browser to the Hostname/IP Address of your ESXi host.


After selecting the desired VMDK to attach in ESXi Host Client wizard, the customer had noticed several fields were not populated as shown in the screenshot above and the workflow would not be allowed to complete as these fields are required.

Note: This issue also affects ESXi 7.0 Update 3i and potentially other newer releases, if they also contain the 2.x version of the ESXi Host Client. One workaround, which I have personally verified with ESXi 7.0 Update 3i is to uninstall the bundled esxi-ui VIB and install the prior version by downloading the ESXi offline depot (zip) for ESXi 7.0 Update 3g. While this may not be officially supported, for those that have a standalone ESXi host or using the Free ESXi version, this may be an acceptable workaround until a fix is available in a future patch/update. For detailed instructions, see my reply on this VMTN thread.

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Quick Tip - Accessing new custom theme editor for ESXi 8.0 Host Client

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While looking over the vSphere 8 release notes, I had noticed there was also release notes for new version of the ESXi Embedded Host Client, which is an HTML 5 UI for accessing standalone ESXi host. The really interesting feature that stood out to me was the following:

Ability to change the user interface theme

Initially, I thought this was referring to the new "gray" theme which is the default when logging in.


I thought it was a bit strange to refer to this as being able to change user interface. What I did not realize was that the theme editor for the ESXi Host Client was actually hiding else where in the UI ... Thanks to Mark Gabbs for sharing the details!

UPDATE (10/12/22) - After publishing this blog post, I noticed a more detailed article was posted on the VMware Blog regarding the new ESXi Host Client 2, which includes even more new features such as markdown support for customizing the ESXi DCUI and Host Client login window.

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Managing ESXi Embedded Host Client settings

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There was a question the other day about managing ESXi Embedded Host Client (EHC) settings which you can find by click on the logged-in username and navigating to the "Settings" section as shown in the screenshot below. Customers can manage things like the default VM Console used whether that is the HTML5 VMRC or the Standalone VMRC to auto-refresh and even sharing usage information to help improve the product back to VMware.


In addition to configuring the EHC settings within UI, you can also manage them via automation using the vSphere API and any one of your favorite vSphere SDK/CLIs. The EHC settings are exposed as a set of ESXi Advanced Settings as shown in the screenshot below. These settings are applied on a per-ESXi basis and NOT on a per-user basis.


Below is a table that summarizes the 7 different EHC settings which you can programmatically query to retrieve their current value, default value and whether they have been overridden simliar to what the UI provides today.

Key Description Default Value
UserVars.HostClientCEIPOptIn  Whether or not to opt-in for CEIP in Host Client: 0 for ask 1 for yes 2 for no 0
UserVars.HostClientDefaultConsole  Default console type in Host Client webmks
UserVars.HostClientEnableMOTDNotification  Whether or not to enable MOTD notification on login for Host Client 1
UserVars.HostClientEnableVisualEffects  Whether or not to enable visual effects for Host Client 1
UserVars.HostClientSessionTimeout  Default timeout for Host Client sessions in seconds 900
UserVars.HostClientShowOnlyRecentObjects  Whether or not to show only recent objects in Host Client 1
UserVars.HostClientWelcomeMessage  Welcome message displayed on login in Host Client  Welcome to {{hostname}}

Note: The language settings is based on your browser settings which you can overridden, but it looks like we may not have exposed that as a configurable setting via automation.