• Esxi Installer Fatal Error 33 Inconsistent Data
• Esxi Installer Fatal Error 339

As the error indicates, the file /xorg.v00 appears to be corrupt and is causing ESXi to fail to boot. At this point, there are really only 2 options to move forward – try to replace the file or perform a reinstall of ESXi. A reinstall really is not that big of a deal and does not take very long to do. Also ran in to this problem on ESXi 7.0 (clueless as to what triggered it), as far as I know there has been no power outage. Anyway, 'upgrading' to ESXi 7.0 from a bootable usb did not fix the issue, however running a brand new install and re-registering my VM's did work. To remove the ESXi embedded host client from your ESXi host, you can use esxcli. Ssh root@esx ip or hostname esxcli software vib remove -n esx-ui Other Resources. Automate the Install of Embedded Host Client for ESXi Fling on all hosts in a cluster. VMware vSphere Hypervisor 7.0 Download Center. This download center features technical documentation and installation guides to make your use of vSphere Hypervisor a success.

The ESXi Embedded Host Client is a native HTML and JavaScript application and is served directly from your ESXi host! It should perform much better than any of the existing solutions.

Please note that the Host Client cannot be used to manage vCenter.

We welcome any feedback and bug reports. You can post your feedback here on the VMware Labs site, in the VMware.com community forums, or using the Host Client's built-in Feedback tool under the Help menu.

Download the VIB here. If you are looking to automate installation of the latest VIB, we also provide a copy of the latest VIB here.

Known Issues

• On hosts using ESXi 6.0 Update 1 or lower and ESXi 5.5 Patch 8 or lower which are assigned a VMware vSphere Hypervisor license (the free license from VMware.com), all modification operations will fail silently. This issue has been resolved in ESXi 6.0 U2 and 5.5 Patch 8.
• Hosts with ESXi 6.0 before Update 2 which have a sub-domain name with a combined cookie size of >8KB in-browser web console sessions may fail to initialize. A workaround is to clear cookies or run the host client in an incognito-type window, or alternatively, use the standalone VMware Remote Console application.
• For ESXi 5.5 hosts, in-browser consoles are not supported. Please use VMware Remote Console (VMRD) to access guest VM consoles.
• For ESXi 5.5 hosts before Update 2, you must ensure to append a trailing / (forward slash) to the URL after /ui. The URL must be https://<esxhost>/ui/

What's missing?

The Embedded Host Client is currently undergoing development. We are working hard to bring the functionality level to that of the vSphere Client, but we're not there yet. Here's what we know is missing:

• Resource pool management
• Comprehensive performance chart UI with access to all performance counters
• Exporting performance counter data to Excel/CSV
• Multi-NIC vMotion configuration
• Deploying VMs from a URL
• Exporting VMs to an OVA

Offline Bundles

Offline bundles are packages that can be loaded into VMware Update Manager to facilitate easy installation of the Host Client onto a cluster of ESXi Hosts

VMware Remote Console VIBs

Installation of the VMRC VIBs is optional and intended to facilitate downloading VMRC in situations where access to VMware.com is not possible. The VIBs are installed into the /locker partition of your host's locally attached disk. This partition has limited space, and so care should be taken to ensure that sufficient space is available. Each VIB is roughly 20 MB in size.

Open source disclosure

We provide an open source disclosure package for the required packages.

A complete open source disclosure can be found in the About dialog of the Host Client.

Feedback

We welcome any feedback or bug reports. Please post here in the Comments or Bugs tab or in the VMware Technology Network community forum.

You must have a web browser installed with JavaScript and cookies enabled.

Installation

The easiest way to install a VIB is to download it directly on the ESXi host. Alternatively, you can download it to your local machine and use scp to push it to your ESXi Host.

If your ESXi host has internet access, you can install directly from URL.

where <URL> is the URL to the VIB from the VMware.com Flings website or somewhere you have locally hosted it.

If the VIB installation completes successfully, you should now be able to navigate a web browser to https://<esx ip or hostname>/ui and the login page should be displayed.

If you have downloaded the VIB to your local machine, you will need to push it to ESXi using scp.

You may need to clear the cache in your browser to see the updated version.

To remove the ESXi embedded host client from your ESXi host, you can use esxcli.

Version 1.33.1 build 12086396 (Fling 23) - January 31, 2019

OVF issues

• Various fixes for ovf import issues
• ISO files are now imported from OVAs

General

• Fixed an issue with special characters in datastore names in some versions of ESXi
• Fix swapped labels for transmit and receive in network chart
• Network adapters are added to the vm in the correct order
• Fixed issue with firewall notifications displaying incorrect information
  provide notifications for expiring licenses
• Support for Swedish input locale in the vm console
• Display Fibre channel wwn and wwp as 64bit addresses

Version 1.32.0 build 10692217 (Fling 22) - November 2, 2018

• Import / Export
  • Iso files and nvram files can now be exported and imported (if suppored by the esx version)
  • Files can be individually selected when exporting
  • All advanced vm config options are exported by default
  • Several bug fixes related to the export wizard
• General
  • Permissions previews now display correctly
  • Support Bundles are now generated on the fly
  • Domain user functionality has been restored
  • Fibre Channel WWNs are displayed in hex

Version 1.31.0 build 9277095 (Fling 21) - July 20, 2018

• General
  • Resolve several issues related to dropdown selection
  • Update NTP UX
  • Update AngularJS to 1.6.10
  • Other minor bug fixes

Version 1.29.0 build 8122819 (Fling 20) - March 28, 2018

• General
  • Reset selection on vm deletion
  • Fix issue with datastore wizard on very large datastores
  • Update available rdm disk list in vm wizard
  • Correct miscalculation of datastore total in wizard
  • Better support for NSX networks
  • Fix clicking issues on full-screen and new tab console screen
  • Prevent password maangers from autofilling optional field on login page.
  • Minor bug fixes and cosmetic changes

Version 1.24.0 build 7119706 (Fling 19) - November 13, 2017

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Fix failure to deploy OVF/OVA image with disks attached to multiple disk controllers
  • Address race condition when adding new Network Adapter to virtual machine
  • Allow datastore browser to browse VVOL datastores
  • Address timeout issue in datastore browser when client receives unknown datatypes from host
  • Address issue disabling autostart for a VM
  • Allow downloading of flat VMDK files in datastore browser
  • Show the correct VMware Tools version string in VM summary
  • Show pager in VM editor when VM has many hard disks
  • Support OVF properties with pre-defined values, showing dropdowns
  • Allow modifications of root user's permissions
  • Support for selecting dependent PCI devices when enabling passthrough
  • Other minor bug fixes

Version 1.23.0 build 6360286 (Fling 18) - August 16, 2017

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Display the VM List in the Host autostart settings
  • Fix role selection in IE 11
  • Correct partition info portlet
  • Better handling of unknown partition types
  • Fix issue with fractional cores per socket in VM settings
  • Several wizard fixes
  • Remove persistent warning when importing VMs that include a floppy drive
  • Fix hidden selection when using the 'select all' checkbox in a filtered VM list
  • Handle OVAs with a missing description field
  • Available NICs display correctly
  • Default VMFS to the most recent version when formatting
  • Security fixes

Version 1.21.0 build 5744014 (Fling 17) - June 12, 2017

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Ability to expand a datastore by increasing the size of an existing extent into adjacent free space on the same LUN.
  • Fix datastore browser to use correct Move and Copy operations when dealing with VMDK files.
  • Correctly handle hot editing a VM with network adapters with MAC addresses assigned from vCenter Server. This avoids re-generating a MAC address when changing portgroups.
  • Default disk provisioning to Thick when adding new disks, this brings host client consistent with vCenter Server.
  • Handle missing certificate data in Host -> Manage -> Security -> Certificates.
  • Show link speed and status in vSwitch edit/add dialog.
  • Move VM name to beginning of page title in full console windows and tabs.
  • Slight adjustment to resolution change size when fitting VM remote console to window to avoid a resolution change event on initial load.
  • Override firefox input:disabled background color to make text in disabled inputs more readable.
  • Let hostd determine the filename of newly created disks.
  • Don't restrict the number of disks a VM can have.
  • Prevent regex replace of undefined ova property description.
  • Add support for adding group permissions.
  • Address an issue where new VM disks are not stored on the correct datastore.

Version 1.17.0 build 5214684 (Fling 16) - March 17, 2017

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Support for limited-access users. Assign permissions to a user on one or more specific VMs, allowing them to log in an interact with only those VMs. It is no longer necessary to assign host-level read-only permissions to allow limited users to log in.
  • Address some issues with the PCI devices table showing data in decimal rather than hexadecimal.
  • Latest localization translations included.
  • Fix issue where host client settings were not saved server-side with ESXi 5.5.
  • Update to Angular 1.3.20 to address crash on login issue with Google Chrome.
  • Fix VIB updater when proxy is used but no username/password is supplied.
  • Add warning to About dialog if running version differs from installed version (i.e. host client is still cached).
  • Fix a couple of issues in the startup script that might cause an error when updating the VIB on a live system.
  • Improvements to Autostart configuration - ability to configure per-VM settings, make the operations more clear.
  • Fix permissions dialog issue in Safari.
  • Fix issue when uploading/downloading files that contain special characters.
  • Improved validation on scheduling affinity field in VM editor.
  • Optimizations to Navigator when loading object counts.
  • Fix issue in VM editor in CPU socket-count dropdown when hyperthreading is enabled.
  • Allow selection of USB 3.0 controller even if guest OS does not support such controllers.
  • Address navigator object name display issue in Firefox on Linux.
  • Better error reporting when uploading an OVA fails due to a disk upload failure.
  • Allow OVF upload if compression=identity.
  • Fix datastore rename notification.

Version 1.16.0 build 4974903 (Fling 15) - January 24, 2017

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Adding new RDM disks to virtual machines is now possible.
  • Fix an issue when removing USB devices from a virtual machine.
  • Add ability to show virtual machine performance metrics on host monitoring charts.
  • Catch accidental double clicks in context menus.
  • Add support for virtual disk sharing configuration.
  • Fix issue where VM list does not update when filters are applied and VM states change.
  • Fix an issue where double clicking on a VM console in Firefox would create drag and resize handles on the canvas.
  • Handle namespaced XML in OVF deployment.
  • Add checkbox to disable automatic VM power on after deployment, allowing hardware configuration.
  • Fix a few issues with SR-IOV configuration in the PCI devices UI and in the VM editor.
  • Fix some issues with VM autostart configuration (increasing/decreasing priority).
  • Display Cisco Discovery Protocol information on physical NIC summary page if available.
  • Display discovered subnets on the physical NIC summary page if available.

Version 1.13.0 build 4762574 (Fling 14) - December 9, 2016

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Fix editing a VM that has an ATAPI CDROM drive but the host has no physical CDROM drive.
  • Update localization catalogs.
  • Fix a couple of bugs in init script leading to incorrect behavior when saving Host Client settings.
  • Fix crash when VM name has sequential % characters
  • Fix potential crashes in the VM editor when using Safari.
  • Support removal of USB controllers from VMs.
  • Add a Host Summary warning when the host's license has expired.
  • Refresh the datastore metrics when the host summary loads.
  • Change Network chart units to bits per second.
  • Show an error when trying to upload a file larger than 4GB using Internet Explorer.
  • Ignore missing datastores when editing a VM, e.g. NFS-backed disk, but NFS datastore is missing.
  • Disable application session timeout while support bundle is generating.
  • Fix a crash on refresh in the Physical NIC summary page.
  • Include storage hardware health page on Host -> Monitor -> Hardware.
  • Better hardware sensor data, including translations of discrete values.
  • Include sensor last updated time.
  • Sort the sensor list by health so red sensors are at the top of the table.
  • Fix loading VM log files when the host client was not loaded from the Host's FQDN.
  • Include new console keyboard layouts, French, Swiss-French, Swiss-German.
  • Add a VM's datastores to the VM list columns.
  • Add support for pre-defined OVF properties to the OVA deploy wizard.

Version 1.10.1 build 4493986 (Fling 13.1) - October 10, 2016

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Fix a crash in IE 10.
  • Fix a crash in the Virtual Machine editor when editing a VM that has a USB device that is no longer attached to the Host.
  • Link to hostname and IP address in VM list columns and in VM summary header.

Version 1.10.0 build 4478863 (Fling 13) - October 6, 2016

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Add warning when opening console if more than one user has a session open.
  • Add quickfilters to the VM list and the Advanced settings list.
  • Fix width of checkbox column in VM list.
  • Support for inflating thin provisioned disks to thick provisioned. Access is from within the datastore browser by right-clicking on a disk file.
  • Fix an issue passing properties to a newly deployed OVF/OVA template.
  • Support NFS 4.1 datastores in the datastore browser.
  • Fix a rare crash in Firefox related to showing the VM screen shot.
  • Fix issue when clicking Refresh on the datastore list which would result in stale data being presented.
  • Fix an issue validating some paths that contain unicode characters.
  • Fix truncation of vswitch name in portgroup list when vswitch name contains a dash.

Version 1.9.1 build 4393350 (Fling 12) - September 16, 2016

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Addressed some German translation accuracy.
  • Added Tools version, Tools status and guest IP address columns to the VM list.
  • Addressed an issue deploying very large OVA files.
  • Fix a bug where newly created or registered VMs may not be automatically loaded into the VM list.
  • Support VMRC for Linux download from host.
  • Add Send Ctrl-Alt-Del menu item to top level Actions in console if guest OS is Windows.
  • Add fix for ESXi 5.1 when editing a VM when checking for SR-IOV ethernet devices, which are unsupported on 5.1.
  • Correctly handle OVA files that are missing the OperatingSystemSection.

Version 1.8.1 build 4355717 (Fling 11) - September 9, 2016

Minor features and bugfixes

• General
  • Open SSH console to host - users of Google Chrome will see a menu item when clicking the Host actions menu linking them to the Chrome Web Store to install the Chrome SSH Client. After installation, users can initiate an SSH session to the host quickly and easily from the Host Client on any platform (Windows, Mac OS and Linux).
  • Fixed a crash when logging in with a read-only user.
  • Fixed a datastore free space validation bug when adding existing disks (including raw mapped devices) to virtual machines.
  • Added support for modifying the host's iSCSI alias.
  • Support for selecting floppy and ISO images from the vmimages directory.
  • When opening a console to a VM with VMware Tools installed, if a resolution change event is not received, prompt to scale the console.
  • Display VMFS datastores first in the datastore browser.
  • Don't validate CDROM devices when they are being removed.
  • Correct issue where add PCI device menu option was being enabled with no valid PCI passthrough devices.
  • Fix issue when assigning unlimited licenses.
  • Handle several additional property types when deploying an OVF template

Version 1.7.1 build 4215448 (Fling 10.1), August 2, 2016

This is is a point release to address a bug which causes the client to crash when an invalid VM is encountered in the VM list.

Version 1.7.0 build 4186463 (Fling 10), July 28, 2016

This is mostly a bugfix release. There are no major features being introduced.

• General
  • We have a new Feedback dialog that allows you to provide immediate feedback from within the application, rather than going to the Flings website. You can also take a screen shot and highlight/redact areas that you want to raise issues about.
  • More translations from English to the other supported languages.
  • Ability to resize and reorder columns in tables, such changes should also be persistent now.
  • The welcome notification is now specific to Host Client, rather than using /etc/motd. However, use of this will require that you restart the management agents on the host after installing the VIB, or restarting the entire host.
• VM
  • Fixed an issue where exiting a full screen console by pressing ESC would leave the client unusable.
  • Ability to change the default console to VMRC rather than in-browser when clicking on a VM's screen shot.
  • Some minor changes to the OVA/OVF deployment summary screen to avoid confusing failures.
  • Added several new columns to the VM table, e.g. annotation, guest OS
• Networking
  • Removing a standard virtual switch will now also remove the portgroups attached to that switch.

Version 1.5.0 build 3976049 (Fling 9), June 6, 2016

• General
  • Log file viewers now have search/highlight ability
  • Configuration is now stored as host advanced configuration variables rather than in browser local storage. This means that configuration is persisted across different browsers and different user machines.
  • Column visibility in all tables is remembered
• Host
  • Add/Edit/Remove users
  • Add/Edit/Remove roles
  • Assign permissions to Host and virtual machines
  • Auto-start configuration UI has been added
• VM
  • Fixed an issue where some dropdowns would not populate when editing or creating a VM (issue was identified using Safari)
  • Fixed an issue adding PCI passthrough devices
  • Fixed an issue adding SR-IOV network adapters
  • Fixed an issue disabling hot-add CPU and memory
  • Added menu item for 'reset to native resolution' for in-browser console
  • Added menu item for tab and window pop-out of in-browser console
  • Addressed an issue when exporting a VM that may lead to missing the downloads of disk images. Pop a dialog before each download.
• Storage
  • Added searching to iSCSI target tables
  • Added input field when creating VMFS datastore to allow accurate sizing of partition when choosing custom partitioning
• Networking
  • Fixed several issues when editing Firewall rules
  • Added support for NIC teaming and traffic shaping for vSwitches and Port groups

Version 1.3.0 build 3841871 (Fling 8) - May 2, 2016

• General
  • Table/grid filtering search and pattern highlighting
  • Most tables now offer right click support in all columns
  • Automatically fix the proxy configuration when it finds the conflicting /ui endpoint
  • Automatically fix a missing /ticket proxy endpoint
  • Better handling of shrunk consoles when screen width is small and/or there are many shrunk consoles
  • Fixes for Login page welcome message
    • JSON Parse error has been fixed
    • Support for {ignore}{/ignore} directives in /etc/vmware/welcome to hide some sections from Host Client but still display them on DCUI
    • Support for {accept}Message beside checkbox{/accept} to allow administrators to enforce acceptance of some terms before allowing users to login. This should be added to /etc/vmware/welcome. To add a message which will be shown if users do not check the checkbox, put {mustaccept}Message to users{/mustaccept} in /etc/vmware/welcome
  • Performance monitoring UIs for Host and VM
    • Filter/search input for filtering series
    • Remove row selection in the series grid to filter series
    • Remove the CPU filter dropdown on the Host performance UI
    • Set performance charts to use monotone interpolation for smoother lines
• Host
  • Support for VSAN maintenance mode options
  • Advanced config UI behaves much better when options are changed (table is not reset, scroll position kept)
  • Sensors monitoring UI has been given some love
• Virtual Machines
  • Support for adding Sound controllers in VM settings
  • Better validation on adding serial ports in VM settings
  • Better UI for modifying VM advanced settings
  • Fixed some issues when using Host Client against ESXi 5.0 when editing VMs
  • Support for adding/removing USB passthrough devices. Currently it's not possible to remove a USB passthrough device when the VM is powered off or suspended, only when powered on.
  • Disk and network charts have been added to the VM performance monitoring UI
  • Deploying OVA VM images now has no size restrictions and much better browser performance and support
  • More options to send keys to guest using Actions menu (function keys, Ctrl-c)
  • Access to limited Actions menu when console is in full-screen mode
  • Download VMRC directly from the ESXi host if you install the VMware-Remote-Console VIBs that are available as downloads from this site. Otherwise the original behavior sending the user to VMware.com remains unchanged.
  • Fixed a bug where loading a VM summary page may prompt for a password
  • Fixed a bug where console may appear fuzzy due to scaling factor
  • Experimental Portuguese keyboard support
  • Auto-expand VM summary network stack when IP information is available
• Storage
  • Support for configuring software iSCSI
    • Enable/disable
    • Authentication settings
    • Advanced configuration
    • Add/remove port bindings
    • Add/remove static targets
    • Add/remove dynamic targets
  • Device status (including iSCSI error conditions) are displayed more prominently (with an icon) in the Devices table
• Networking
  • Ability to change MTU for VMkernel Interfaces
  • Improved handling of firewall rule updates
  • Fixed a bug editing VMkernel interfaces on ESXi 5.5

Version 1.1.0 build 3731936 (Fling 7) - April 4, 2016

• General
  • Show /etc/vmware/welcome (Annotations.WelcomeMessage) as a pre-login message on the login page
  • Show /etc/motd (Config.Etc.Motd) as an app-level notification after login
  • ANSI escape sequence parsing in notifications (mostly for MOTD)
  • Double click on resize handle to make grid maximum height
  • Improved scroll bar behavior in grids
  • Ignore Backspace presses when a wizard or dialog is open and a text input is not focused (this stops the browser from navigating back in history under the dialog or wizard)
  • Actions menu is now available in consoles opened in separate windows and tabs
  • Ability to disable visual effects from settings menu
  • Ability to show entire inventory from settings menu
  • Press escape to clear app-level notifications
  • Add auto-refresh support for Host and VM log viewer
  • Support pressing Escape key to clear validation messages in dialogs and wizards
  • Host and VM log viewer will auto-scroll to the bottom of the log on load
  • Improved the performance chart tooltips
• Virtual Machines
  • Keyboard layout menu now in browser console title bar
  • VM create/reconfig/ops working with ESXi 5.1
  • More optimizations to VM list
  • Fix a bug related to disk ordering in the OVA/OVF deploy wizard
  • Fix a bug with OVA deploy for Safari
  • Fixed a bug where you could not add a new disk to an existing VM on a different datastore
• Storage
  • Visual improvements to datastore browser

Version 0.6.0 build 3623722 (Fling 6) - March 4, 2016

• General
  • Ability to edit VMs with network adapters attached to static-binding distributed virtual port groups
  • Ability to consolidate virtual machine disks
  • Hide session timeout notification when mouse moves
  • Show notification when specified VM guest does not match the guest running in a VM
  • Fixed a bug related to changing network adapter type
  • Fixed a bug related to VM screen shots and consoles when connecting to host client via IPv6 address
  • Fixed a bug where consoles would not work when host client was reverse-proxied on a non 443 port
  • Fixed a bug when modifying congestion control algorithm in TCP/IP stacks
  • Fixed an issue where context menus would sometimes be unlocalized and show missing translation errors
  • Many more minor fixes
• Performance tuning
  • Optimization of recent tasks panel (recent tasks will 'nap' if you minimize the panel, improving performance)
  • Performance tuning in populating distributed virtual portgroup port metadata (caused host client to hang on load with a DVS with large numbers of connected VMs)
  • Performance tuning in loading of virtual machines
  • Performance tuning in global search (search populates much faster now when a large number of VMs exist)
  • Performance tuning when loading Host Summary

Version 0.1.0 build 3530804 (Fling 5)

• General
  • Improved table behavior, including comprehensive filtering, column selection
  • Improved Recent Tasks table performance
  • Improved VM table performance
  • Improved context menu behavior on iPad
  • Ability to drag/resize all windows/dialogs on iPad
  • Many many bug fixes
• Host
  • Improvements to performance monitoring UI, resize dragger, tooltip behavior
• Virtual Machines
  • Export VM support (basic)
  • Experimental IT/ES keyboard support for in-browser console
  • Fixed some major issues with storage controller manipulation
  • (adding/removing controllers, assigning disks, etc.)
• Storage
  • Fixed sorting in datastore browser

Version 0.1.0 (Fling 4)

• General
  • New Tools and links menu under Help
  • Update mechanism can now take a URL or data store path to an metadata zipfile, allowing to update ESXi itself
  • Localization and internationalization (French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Chinese (traditional and simplified) and Korean
  • Ability to disable session timeout
  • A huge number of bugfixes and minor improvements
• Host
  • Ability to change host acceptance level
  • Ability to edit lock down exception users
  • Ability to edit system swap settings
• Virtual Machines
  • VM list has been optimized for performance, reducing data download by a factor of 5.
  • Ability to edit VM advance options
  • Ability to edit VM video adapter settings
  • Add a PCI pass through device (unable to remove device though)
  • SRIOV support for Network card devices
  • Ability to change browser console keyboard layout (Japanese and German are the currently supported layouts)
  • Cmd+a or Ctrl+a to select all VMs in list
  • Soft-power off and reset if Tools is installed is now supported

Version 0.1.0 (Fling 3)

• General
  • For tabbed UIs, the selected tab is remembered as you navigate around the UI to avoid un-necessary clicks
  • Better scrolling performance on tablets (tested on iPad)
  • Hide-able navigator allowing more space on tablets
  • Shortcut buttons to Host, Host Manage, Host Monitor, VMs, Storage, Networking when navigator is collapsed
  • Improved Actions menu behavior on tablets
    • Menu navigation no longer hides the actions menu
    • Added an explicit close button on actions menus
    • A second press on the Actions button will close the menu
  • Bugfixes
    • VM table sizing with small number of VMs
• Virtual Machines
  • Answer question support
  • Upgrade virtual hardware to the latest supported by the host
  • Hot edit VM settings
  • VM table column configuration (show/hide columns), remembered across browser refresh
  • VM startup/shutdown priority (simple increase/decrease)
  • In-browser consoles
    • Will now attempt to reconnect when losing a connection to a powered on VM
    • Reverting to a powered-on snapshot while a console is open to that VM will reconnect the console
• Host
  • Change host power management policy, advanced power configuration
  • Generate IP/FQDN certificate signing request and import new certificate
  • Join a host to an active directory domain controller
• Storage
  • Disk device partition editor
  • Adapter rescan for new LUNs
  • Disk device rescan for new VMFS volumes
  • Clear a disk's partition table
  • Disk device partition diagram
  • Increase datastore size onto disk that already contains a partition table
• VM and Host performance charts
  • Ability to change performance chart colors (two choices: default VMware colors and high contrast colors)
  • Added Network and Disk charts to Host performance UI
  • Improve VM performance UI, still missing some charts
  • Improved performance UI on tablets
    • Always hide the top legend in the chart
    • Hide the focus widget to increase vertical space

Version 0.1.0 build 3023372 (Fling 2)

• General
  • Double click title bar to enlarge dialogs and wizards
  • Alt + drag in a dialog or wizard to resize
  • Locale override (we still only support en-US at this stage)
  • Customizable session timeout
  • Bug fixes
    • Localization on ESXi 5.5 should be working now
    • We have removed pt-br, so you shouldn't have issues if you use that locale now
• Virtual Machines
  • VM Snapshot support
  • In-browser VM console full screen support
  • In-browser VM console 'shrink' support
  • Mac OS guest creation has been enabled
• Storage
  • Completed file browser (copy/move/delete/create directory/upload/download)
  • Right click on VMX file in browser to register VM
  • Mount/create NFS datastores
  • Create VMFS datastore (currently only on disks that don't have a partition table)
  • Extend VMFS datastore (currently only onto disks that don't have a partition table)
  • Mount/Unmount VMFS datastore
• Host
  • Improved host performance monitoring UI
  • Composite CPU/memory figure
• Networking
  • Firewall ruleset listing (currently read-only)

Version 0.1.0 build 2976804 (Fling 1)

• VM operations (Power on, off, reset, suspend, etc)
• Creating a new VM, from scratch or from OVF/OVA (limited OVA support)
• Configuring NTP on a host
• Displaying summaries, events, tasks and notifications/alerts
• Providing a console to VMs
• Configuring host networking
• Configuring host advanced settings
• Configuring host services

1. Kickstart overview

I’m showing here, how to modify an ESXi ISO file, so that the installation runs completely automatically from USB.
This can be used in principle on all systems, of course also on the above described or on „headless systems“ without connecting a display.

To get a complete overview or to get a detailed list of installation methods and commands, please read the original document from vmware:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-65/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-installation-setup-guide.pdf

2. ISO image preparation

Esxi Installer Fatal Error 33 Inconsistent Data

You’ll need a server with more than 4 GB RAM, at least two cores, SSD/harddisk and an empty USB stick (>=8GB).
CAUTION: DATA WILL BE OVERWRITTEN on USB stick and on your server. So use this procedure at your own risk!

First of all you’ll need an ESXi ISO file, perhaps a modified file which contains custom drivers for your system. Read my other article for some tips how to create your own custom installation ISO file or have a look here: http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html

Esxi Installer Fatal Error 339

I made a custom ISO file with this command (see v-front.de for details):
.ESXi-Customizer-PS-v2.5.1.ps1 -v65 -vft -load net55-r8168,net51-r8169,sata-xahci

This image currently contains additional drivers for some ASRock and similar systems, e.g. Q1900/N3150/J3160/J3455-ITX
Download link is here: https://esxi.jorba.de/ESXi-6.5.0-20171204001-standard-customized.zip
(Updated Image 2018/02/03)

Than create a bootable USB stick (size >= 8GB), for example use portable Rufus for this task.

Download portable Rufus from here: https://rufus.akeo.ie/?locale=en_US

Insert an empty USB stick, use the above parameters and select your ESXi ISO image, than click on Start button to create a bootable USB installation.
(Again the warning not to overwrite some important data!)

Download boot.cfg and ks-nowipe.cfg from my blog and copy (replace) them on the USB stick. These are the kickstart files.
Download links:
https://esxi.jorba.de/ipxe/ESXi-6.5.0-20170304101/usbboot/boot.cfg
https://esxi.jorba.de/ipxe/ESXi-6.5.0-20170304101/usbboot/ks-nowipe.cfg

3. Boot from USB and start installation

Insert USB stick into your server, boot from USB

–> BIOS needs to be setup in legacy boot / compatibility mode (not UEFI).
–> Installation will need about 10 minutes to complete, there will be a reboot

Wait for completion!

Post installation customization

Embedded host client

After installation, you can manage the system with the embedded host client inside your browser: http://<ip-address>/ui
You will find the ip address inside your router’s DHCP status table.

Login credentials

The managing user is „root“, the initial password can be set in the ks-nowipe.cfg installation file.
If you use my above file without changes, the login it is simply „root/password„, so change it immediately 😀

ESXi shell / ssh

My kickstart files enable ESXi shell and ssh.
This are useful management tools, but if don’t need them, switch them off using the management client.

Direct console (DCU)

If the „direct console (DCU)“ is not working on your server due to missing video output or because you use the server „headless“, is can be accessed via SSH (if you leave it enabled).

Start putty or another ssh-tool, connect to your ESXi Server and enter the following commands:

export TERM=linux
dcui

ESXi console via SSH

Periodic Backup

A really good free backup script for ESXi is ghettoVCB:
http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2015/05/ghettovcb-vib-offline-bundle-for-esxi.html

Feedback

This post was updated several times and will be updated periodically in the future.
Feedback welcome.

Antonio Jorba