Update 2
VClient is a native Mac application to manage VMware vSphere and ESX(i) servers It will support vSphere 7.0 and Project Pacific! Get rid of web console, try out native client NOW!
In early 2016, VMware began including the embedded HTML5 host client for managing ESXi in version 6.0 U2 from your web browser. Meant to connect to and manage single ESXi clients, it’s a great solution for users getting started with a dedicated Mac (like a quad-core mini or a Mac Pro) running VMware at MacStadium.
On the other side, the 5.5 version introduce (see what’s new document) a full client support for Mac OS X is now available in the vSphere Web Client. Other limits remains almost the same of the previous 5.1 version and are well described in this VMware post. Basically several plugin are still legacy and not re-resigned for the new interface. VClient is a native Mac application to manage VMware vSphere and ESX(i) servers. It will support vSphere 7.0 and Project Pacific! Get rid of web console, try out native client NOW! Our first release targets for H1 2020! Native Client, Fast access, Stable connection. Data Store with in-app file navigation, download and Network view.
Update
The venerable William Lam of virtuallyGhetto noticed we were missing ESXi Embedded Host Client. He wrote a great article on this tool explaining its use that's worth checking out. We're ready to add any other suggestions that our readers may have.
Here’s the Situation
You’ve just had a Mac mini setup with ESXi to move all of your software onto one machine. VMware ESXi is a great option to get the most out of a single server at MacStadium as it’s the only enterprise option available for virtualizing OS X, Windows, and Linux on one machine.
You’re probably using MacStadium because you personally use a Mac (let’s call it a MacBook Pro) for day-to-day work and recognize the potential of a hosted Mac. Rather than continue paying more for shared hosting at another provider (without OS X of course) you’d like one place to manage all of your servers.
The next step is obviously connecting to and managing your VMware single-server ESXi environment. This is where the VMware vSphere software suite comes into play. But wait, you've only got the MacBook Pro! Unfortunately for developers working on Apple hardware locally, there is no native VMware vSphere client available for OS X. Don’t give up, though; there are alternatives.
Will There Ever be a Desktop App for OS X?
There was a glimmer of hope for Mac users in a preview of VMware vSphere 6.0. A thick (desktop) client was included that could be installed locally by Windows and Mac users (and presumably Linux in the future). Unfortunately, it disappeared in the next release candidate and has not been seen again.
Can I Use vSphere Web Client?
In older versions of VMware vSphere, a Windows desktop was the primary means of accessing vSphere environments. Now though, more and more users are taking advantage of the vSphere web client to access vSphere.
The catch with vSphere Web Client is that it’s only accessible if you have vCenter. On a single-server solution running ESXi, that means $99/month. Don’t give up hope just yet.
What About VMware Fusion?
If you’re a recent convert to virtualization and tested the waters in VMware Fusion Pro on your local Mac machine, you’re in luck. VMware Fusion Pro for Mac includes the only truly native client for accessing your remote vSphere environment from OS X. If you’re not already using Fusion Pro is it worth it to purchase a license? At $200, it might be a hard sell for managing your single ESXi host.
Can I Use Windows on my Mac?
If you’ve got Boot Camp on your Mac, you could save all of your work to a remote or shared partition, log out, reboot into Windows, open up your shared partition or remote folder, open the vSphere client, and finally connect to vSphere and manage your virtual machines. That’s a lot of steps but it is a viable solution. You could also run a Windows VM in VMware Fusion or Workstation Player.
Is There Command Line Access?
Yes, you can partially manage your ESXi server using SSH. You’ll have to have access to a vSphere client temporarily to enable SSH access in ESXi. vCLI, the VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface, is also an alternative for management from a Linux or Windows system.
Does MacStadium Offer any Alternatives?
For single-server ESXi installations, we can make sure your server is always available whenever you need access from one of the above options. If you are in a testing phase and plan to move to a multi-host ESXi cluster, there is great news. We offer vCenter to all private cloud environments. A team of users on Mac’s can all manage vSphere using the included vSphere Web Client.
Don’t hesitate to reach us over live chat or by opening a support ticket if you have questions or need help with your Mac servers running ESXi.
References
We’re pleased to announce that the vSphere Client is now ‘Fully Featured’ in vSphere 6.7 Update 1. This means that you can manage all aspects of your vSphere environment using the HTML5-based vSphere Client, no need to switch back and forth between the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client.
We’ve ported all remaining features into the vSphere Client, including Auto Deploy, Host Profiles, VMware vSphere Update Manager (VUM), vCenter High Availability (VCHA), network topology diagrams, overview performance charts, and more. Read about all the features released in this version of the vSphere Client by visiting Functionality Updates for the vSphere Client site.
Feature highlights
As part of our drive towards tailoring the vSphere Client to serve your needs, we’ve improved workflow usability and overall performance. You’ll notice some changes how you work with the vSphere Client compared to earlier clients. Here are some of the areas that have changed significantly.
- vCenter High Availability (VCHA)
- We redesigned VCHA workflows to combine the Basic and Advanced configuration workflows. This streamlines the user experience and eliminates the need for manual intervention of some deployments.
- Search Experience
- We revamped the search experience. In this version of the vSphere Client, you can now search for objects with a string and filter the search results based on Tags/Custom attributes. You can also filter the object lists in the search even further. For instance, you can filter on the power state of the VMs etc., You can save your searches and revisit them later.
- Performance Charts
- You can pop the performance charts into a separate tab and zoom in on a specific time in the chart. We also added overview performance charts for datacenters and clusters.
- Dark Theme
- Dark theme has been one of the most requested features for the vSphere Client so we’re introducing a Dark mode setting. Support for the Dark theme is available for all core vSphere Client functionality and implementation for vSphere Client plugins is in progress.
- Alarm Definitions
- We greatly simplified the way you define new alarms, particularly in how you create rules for trigger conditions.
Let’s highlight a couple of features which are available only in the vSphere Client.
- In-product Feedback Tool
- We wanted to make it very easy for you to give us feedback so we included an In-product feedback tool in the vSphere Client. After you login to the vSphere Client, notice the smile icon on the top right corner. You can click the icon to send feedback as a free-form text. You also have an option to capture a screenshot to include in the feedback, annotate, and obfuscate any private information in the captured screenshot. Optionally, you can include your email address so that we can reach out to you to follow-up on your feedback.
- Dashboard
- The home page of vSphere Client is a dashboard that displays resource utilization information (CPU, Memory and Storage), the number of VMs, hosts, a list of objects with critical alerts, and a list of installed plugins that vCenter finds in the environment.
Download Vsphere Client 5.5
To get familiar with modified workflows and new features in the vSphere Client, take a look at this series of short videos on YouTube.
vSphere Client Plugins
How To Download Vsphere Client
vSphere Client Plugins are UI components built by VMware and our partners to enable you to manage the additional suite of products that work with vSphere. We provided our plugin partners with SDK tools to migrate their plugins to the vSphere Client in advance of this release and client plugins for the following solutions are now available:
- VMware plugins: VMware vSphere Update Manager (VUM), vSAN, NSX, vRealize Operations (vROPs), Site Recovery Manager (SRM), vSphere Replication (VR), vSphere Integrated Containers (VIC).
- Partner plugins certified for the vSphere Client: IBM Spectrum Protect, IBM Storage Enhancements, Veeam, StorMagic, INFINIDAT, HPE OneVIew, Fujitsu Software ServerView, Fujitsu ETERNUS, ATTO vconfigutoolui. Please refer to VMware Compatibility Guide for the latest set of certified plugins.
We are actively engaging with the additional partners to migrate the remaining plugins. You could refer vSphere 6.7 Client Plugin Readiness blog post to get tentative schedules of additional partner plugins.
vSphere Client flings
We continue to release vSphere Client flings. We often use flings for early feature validation so some features are first released in a fling and later released as part of a standard vSphere release. vSphere Client code in a fling gets the same quality and performance testing as the code in the official supported vSphere releases. Please continue using flings and giving us feedback on how we can make our new features better for you.
Download Vcenter Client
To take advantage of all features in the vSphere Client, upgrade to vSphere 6.7 U1 as soon as you can. Until you’re ready to upgrade, you can continue using the vSphere Client flings for vCenter Server 6.5 and vCenter Server 6.0 to get some of the features that are missing in these versions. Please take a moment to fill out this short 2-minute survey about your experience using the vSphere Client so-far.