VMware: Setup HTML5 Client for vSphere 6.0 with vCenter on Windows

Hi,

these are there the steps to setup the new HTML5 Client within an vSphere 6 environment.

Download the latest version fling appliance h5ngcVA-3.41.0.0-9687895_OVF10.ova and server-configure.bat and deploy the appliance to your vSphere environment. Adjust IP (OVF Import) and MAC address.

Copy server-configure.bat to your Windows vCenter Server.

If you do not use the default installation pathes (in this example D:\Programs) edit server-configure.bat and adjust KEYTOOL, VECS_CLI, VMAFD_CLI and CLIENT_DIR (default of CLIENT_DIR works for me) environment variables

REM Path to javas' keytool
SET KEYTOOL=D:\Programs\VMware\vCenter Server\jre\bin\keytool.exe
REM Path to vecs binary
SET VECS_CLI=D:\Programs\VMware\vCenter Server\vmafdd\vecs-cli.exe
REM Path to vmafd binary
SET VMAFD_CLI=D:\Programs\VMware\vCenter Server\vmafdd\vmafd-cli.exe
...
echo Creating ds.properties file...
SET CLIENT_DIR=%PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client

Open a cmd shell with administrator permissions and run server-configure.bat

D:\install> server-configure.bat
Generating store.jks file...
Generating webclient.properties file...
Error 2: Possible errors:
LDAP error: Protocol error
Win Error: The system cannot find the file specified.
Using the get-machine-id as get-ldu is returning an error for this vcenter.
Error 100001: An unknown option was present on the command line.
Using the default reverseproxyport=443 since no custom port found.
Creating ds.properties file...
        1 file(s) copied.
Done.

If you are on vCenter 6.0 U2 and onwards the error The system cannot find the file specified. can be ignored.

Check if the generated files has sizes > 0 bytes

D:\install>dir
 Volume in drive D is vSPhere

 Directory of D:\install\

13.09.2018  18:49    <DIR>          .
13.09.2018  18:49    <DIR>          ..
02.05.2017  12:01               143 ds.properties
13.09.2018  18:48             8.018 server-configure.bat
13.09.2018  18:49             9.746 store.jks
13.09.2018  18:49               114 uuid.vbs
13.09.2018  18:49             1.389 webclient.properties

Ensure that an IP Pool, for the network the HTML5 Client Appliance should belongs to, exists and is properly configured (DNS Servers, DNS Suffix, DNS Searchpath…) . Otherwise the start of the Appliance fails with Cannot initialize property “vami.gateway.vSphere_- Web_Client_Appliance’.Network ‘Network 1’ has no associated network protocol profile.”

Power on the Appliance. Login as root (default password demova) at vSphere console and start the ssh daemon temporary.

root@html5 ~ # systemctl start sshd

For security reasons change the root password.

root@html5 ~ # passwd

Then Login as root via ssh and create the following folders

root@html5 ~ # mkdir -p /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/config 
root@html5 ~ # mkdir -p /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/vsphere-client/

Go back to your Windows vCenter and copy the already generated files to the HTML5 Client Appliance. I use putty’s pscp command.

D:\> cd install
D:\install> pscp store.jks root@IPOfYourAppliance:/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/
D:\install> pscp ds.properties root@IPOfYourAppliance:/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/config/
D:\install> pscp webclient.properties root@IPOfYourAppliance:/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/vsphere-client/

Start the HTML5 Client daemon at the appliance

root@html5 ~ # /etc/init.d/vsphere-client start
Starting vSphere Client Web Server
vSphere Client Web Server successfully started in 156 seconds

Open a browser https://IPOfYourAppliance:9443

This redirects you to the Webclient Login Page. After logged on successfully you get redirected to the HTML5 Frontend.

To Upgrade an exiting installation download the installer bsx file and copy the file to the appliance

D:\> pscp installer-3.42.0.bsx root@html5:

Make a snapshot of your HTML5 Applicane and login

root@html5 /# cd ~
root@html5 ~ # chmod +x installer-3.42.0.bsx
root@html5 ~ # /etc/init.d/vsphere-client stop
root@html5 ~ # ./installer-3.42.0.bsx
root@html5 ~ # /etc/init.d/vsphere-client start

Michael

Leave a Reply