We use a lot of virtualization and we like the ESXi Hypervisor provided by VMware for free for setting up a simple shared virtual environment. Yeah the free version is crippled but it allows for unlimited CPU sockets and unlimited memory. This is already better than the out-of-the-box crippled Microsoft Hyper-V.
When you pay for VMware vCenter Server you automatically get a Web Console UI that appears to be replacing the older VMware vSphere Client. But when you use the free ESXi Host Hypervisor you don’t get the Web Console UI by default.
There is a very simple way to add the Web Console UI:
- SSH to the host (make sure SSH is enabled)
- Log in as ROOT
- run this simple command:
esxcli software vib install -v http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/esxui/esxui_signed.vib
Wait for the install to complete and you are given the message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot is not required.
Now using the IP of the host, navigate your favorite browser to: https://hostname_or_IP_of_host/ui
Log in as you would with the client. The interface is apparently somewhat crippled due to the free license but as near as I can tell you can still do pretty much everything you could with the client without having to actually install the client.
As a bonus, now that you have a Web Console UI, you can set up firewall rules for remote management. This isn’t recommended unless you know how to properly secure the connection but it is feasible.
