

VMWare: vSphere Web Client sucks so bad - jbd
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/477686

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yebyen
I'm glad this article made it to the front page, it must have been a repost
because last time I saw it come up it didn't receive any upvotes or comments.
It really does suck that bad, for anyone who isn't on it or is at all
skeptical.

I haven't found a way to run it on a Linux machine, which kind of negates the
usefulness of a web client for me; we have a Windows 7 machine in the back
room hooked up to a KVM since our $10,000 servers for running ESXi can't run
the client on a Windows 7 virtual host as fast as a roughly five year old
desktop computer. No idea why. Maybe performance crosstalk with the vcenter
host.

It's true that many seemingly routine tasks take an order of magnitude more
time than with the C# client, but when the C# client is no longer developed
and apparently doesn't receive new features like "migrate", you're stuck with
it.

I think I learned from this post there is actually a way to log into the
vCenter server and manage all of your hosts from the C# client, so I'll
definitely be trying that out. I always thought that vCenter meant Web Client,
and maybe that's not true. But even if that adds some of the missing features
I'm going back out to the web client to use today, it's just a miserable
program and I felt I had to throw in $0.02 here. I used to admire VMWare, but
not anymore since I started using their stuff in a business environment.

~~~
irongeek
I have manage to get it to run on a Linux machine by installing Google Chrome,
because they have Flash embedded in the browser. In my opinion this is a
terrible option, but I thought I would share it never the less.

~~~
yebyen
I thought the same thing (and I can't test it right now, our vcenter host is
currently powered down because of thermal issues we're having during an
asbestos abatement next door, another story)

However on my Windows 7 machines, even with Google Chrome, connecting to the
vcenter host's web interface asks to install two additional plugins that are
not as far as I can tell Flash related. My boss does a decent job keeping up
with the patches for most things, so if maybe you stopped upgrading when they
started breaking stuff it's possible we might be running a newer version than
you.

~~~
irongeek
On my Ubuntu Desktop I am running Google Chrome and just opened vSphere Web
Client. My versions are as follows.

Ubuntu 14.04, Chrome Version 35.0.1916.153, vSphere Web Client Version 5.5.0
Build 1750595 and Flash Player LNX 14,0,0,125

I included Flash Player because it comes up in my about VMware vSphere page
but I can tell you I could not install a newest enough Flash plugin on Linux
because Adobe has stopped releasing them, which you probably already know.

~~~
yebyen
That was the hangup, I remember now. You can't download a new enough Flash
plugin, I found that and gave up, but I guess Chrome works. That's great news.
Means I can ditch the Windows VM. Thanks.

------
gazoakley
It's been a while since I used the vCloud web client, but if it's the same as
the vSphere one I can appreciate the pain anyone else using it goes through.
Trying to have the "right" version of IE/Java was a right mess.

------
shepardrtc
It seems as though they jumped on the bandwagon for web clients with it. I've
used both it and the C# application, and I can say that I much prefer the
latter. Easy to navigate, and very fast response.

Honestly, installing a fast, custom application to manage VM servers is a very
reasonable time investment of probably less than a minute. Having a backup web
client is also reasonable, but by no means should it be the primary interface.
Browsers are good for many things, but they are also equally terrible for many
others.

------
eddyg
As a Fusion user, it is interesting to me that Fusion appears to be getting
ESXi/vSphere management capability:

[http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/vmware-fusion-
te...](http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/vmware-fusion-technology-
preview-july-2014-includes-esxi-management-options/)

------
cjoelrun
Not sure what your use case is, but why not build your own tools? As a
previous user of OpenStack, the UI was not terrible but as an administrator I
found it useless except very simple things. I wrote scripts for tasks
regularly carried out.

I haven't had experience with vSphere's UI, but if it's anywhere as terrible
as the vCloud Director UI, why not write some stuff to make your life easier.
VMware recently open sourced some vSphere python bindings:
[https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi](https://github.com/vmware/pyvmomi)

~~~
2close4comfort
I am tempted more and more each day if I knew that I could get SRM and few
other choice options working I would spend the time. Thanks for that pyvmomi
link I am going to check that out right now.

~~~
travem
If you are on a windows machine it might be worth looking at PowerCLI [1] as
well, it has a very active community and they just started added some basic
cmdlets to access to the SRM public API [2].

[1] [http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/](http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/) [2]
[http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2014/03/new-release-
vsphere...](http://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2014/03/new-release-vsphere-
powercli-5-5-r2.html)

~~~
2close4comfort
Now this is something that I have been doing is looking at tasks I can
accomplish from PowerCLI and I do like it well enough. It may be that this is
more the direction I should be looking instead of client (web/C#) based
solutions...

------
2close4comfort
As someone who uses the webclient everyday while the 5.5 version is MUCH
improved, there is still a lot not to like. The organization is awkward and
the response is terrible. As far as underpowering the server running vcenter
if it this much of a drain it should be broken out to a separate server or
optimized for responsiveness for the webclient. I want this to change I like
being able to manage VMs from a browser. But there are some tasks that just
need to be done from the C# client simply for the sake of time.

~~~
mitchty
The web client here at work times out with some queries.

5.5 might be improved, but it is the most horrible example of a "web" client.

I also love the "kinda sorta doesn't" works with chrome stuff too. Having to
basically open up IE to run a flash app makes me wonder if vmware has any web
developers that can accomplish the task sanely.

~~~
2close4comfort
I dont have any luck with Chrome which is a shame...but it does work well with
Firefox on OSX so I try not to complain.

------
x86_64Ubuntu
As a Flex dev, it seems there are two problems. The first is that the
community doesn't seem to want to change. That's normal and lord knows
warranted in many cases, but regardless of what's happening, opposition is
expected. Secondly, it seems the Flex/Java code may not be up to par. As
someone who doesn't even know what the application is supposed to do, the
specs of the machines people are running while saying it is still slow is
unacceptable.

------
vertex-four
I actually like the web client. I only have two issues with it - it depends
(depended?) on Flash along with a proprietary plugin for Windows integrated
authentication, and it's slow as hell.

Other than that, after a bit of getting used to, I find it easier to use than
the native client.

~~~
insaneirish
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

------
incision
Yes, yes it does.

I try to do as much as possible via Python and maintain a jumpbox for running
the full client.

More importantly, I avoid VMWare wherever possible. These days there are
plenty of excellent, fully viable alternatives which weren't quite there just
a few years ago.

------
waps
I wrote a web client for VirtualBox. Works a lot better than VMWare (not that
it's that hard), like most everything else in VirtualBox.

If your needs are personal, this project is pretty good :

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpvirtualbox/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpvirtualbox/)

If not, I'd be interested to hear what your needs are.

~~~
davidcollantes
It looks quite nice! Have you considered using GitHub or something more
cleaner than Sourceforge?

~~~
waps
No you misunderstand. I'm not the phpvirtualbox author. I worked on the
backend components, the API, the networking support and the VNC server.

