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I have searched every corner of the internet (well, I searched really hard...) for a proper vSphere client for Linux, but it seems that the answer is the same everytime: VMWare tells users to use Windows.

  • Is there any information on a vSphere client for Linux?
  • Are there alternative third-party clients that support Linux?

Any help is appreciated.

Aron Rotteveel
  • 8,809

9 Answers9

5

Is there any information on a vSphere client for Linux?

Vmware has no plans to make a linux client at this time.

Are there alternative third-party clients that support Linux?

libvirt has simplistic support: http://libvirt.org/drvesx.html This, coupled with vCenter Server on Linux ( http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/vcserver_linux ) would allow completely Windows-less management.

Aron Rotteveel
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Mark Wagner
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4

There will be a web-based client in vSphere 5, which should satisfy Linux desktop users. And since vCenter Server will be available as a SUSE Linux-based vApp, it will finally become possible to build Windows-less vSphere environments.

Max Alginin
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2

If you use Ubuntu then you can try the following alternative ... http://vmetc.com/2009/10/23/using-vsphere-client-on-ubuntu-linux-with-single-application-rdp/ Also there is a development going on for Ruby vSphere Console which you can check at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/307855 ...

user74596
  • 66
2

There is currently not an official vSphere client for Linux. You probably won't get the answer that you want with this question either, as anything on VMware's roadmap is typically non-disclosure. I'd talk to your VMware rep to see if they can share any future plans with you.

Additionally, vMA and vCLI are great linux alternatives for the vSphere client. They are, however, not a GUI.

JakeRobinson
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1

vSphere Web Access is not an option?

duenni
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1

Well I'm working on a solution to manage ESX(i) natively on Linux with a GUI...

This has started as a little learning simple GUI coding project but it becomes more and more usable ;o)

You can take a look on the current features here:

http://vEMan.nethna.de

I'm currently re-designing some of the GUI parts but I think I can release a public version the next week.

According to:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2005377

Starting from ESX(i) v5 there will be the web access feature also available for ESXi - so you may don't need a client anymore...

But when you're using v4.X you will have no other GUI tool than mine (as far as I know) ;o)

I'm happy for comments ;o)

Regards

Thomas

Thomas
  • 11
0

There is no vSphere client for Linux, but you can use the VMWare Player as a console client for your guest VMs. You need to use a hidden commandline flag:

$ vmplayer -h [<hostname>]

where <hostname> is the optional name of your VMWare host server. If you leave the hostname off, the dialog you are presented with will let you fill it in, along with your username and password. Note: all this gets you is a console for your VM, not restart and other control or monitoring the vSphere client gives you.

I think this is a major shortcoming of VMWare to not provide tools that work on all platforms.

SethG
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The vSphere client is a .Net application, so it will never run on Linux. There has been a long-running (5+ years) thread about their forums and nobody from VMware has ever responded. The company obviously doesn't give a rat's butt about it's Linux customers.

Otto
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0

You also can use vmware workstation for linux - it connects to VC and lets you do a lot of things with VMs(connecting to console, editing hardware and so on), but if you need to correct some storage or vswitch settings you gonna need windows client=(

shoguevara
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