VMware Server is a cool free product that you can install on an existing Windows or Linux system and run virtual machines in the background. While it’s built on VMware’s awesome virtualization technology, there are a few issues that make the current version of VMware Server (2.0.2) a little annoying to use.
Out-of-the-box, it can only be managed through the web interface. The web interface itself is not too bad, but if you aren’t accessing it from the same machine that it’s running on, it forces you to use HTTPS. This is great, of course, except something is wonky with the https implementation that is used (it appears to only support SSL version 2, for which support is disabled by default or outright removed from the current version of every major browser?). So, blah. I can’t manage my VMs remotely, which is one of the reasons why I’d like to use VMware Server in the first place.
Now, there are ways around this. You could set up an SSH tunnel or some similar network trick so that you could access the web interface without being kicked over to HTTPS. Or you could use Remote Desktop or a remote X application to access it using a web browser on the same machine as the server. These work for getting to the configuration pages, but I still had trouble trying to access the remote console (which relies on a browser plugin that seems a bit flaky).
There are lots of people complaining about both of these issues (flaky HTTPS and flaky remote console). Now, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a downloadable client that could manage said VMs without having to use the web browser?
After all, there was a client for VMware Server 1.x, and while it is separately downloadable, it doesn’t work with VMware Server 2.
Some searching reveals a lot of people talking about this back during the VMware Server 2 beta period, where you could actually download a client to use from the VMware Server web interface itself (granted, it wasn’t exposed, you had to know what URL to type in). But, I found that it has been removed from the current version.
So, I set out looking for a client that will work. There is a separately downloadable client for VMware vSphere (the current version of which is 4.1), but it doesn’t work either. I was able to get it talking to my vMware Server installation, but it wanted to download some support files and gave a generic non-useful error message when I told it to go ahead.
Maybe you found this page because you are searching for a client that will work with VMware Server 2. Here’s the answer.
I discovered that there is a copy of VMware Infrastructure Client hidden in the download of VMware Server 2. The catch is you have to download VMware Server 2.0.0 (not 2.0.1 or 2.0.2). It’s still available on the VMware Server download page. I downloaded the 32-bit Linux version (.tar.gz), unzipped it, and found it at vmware-server-distrib\lib\hostd\docroot\client\VMware-viclient.exe. This installs VMware Infrastructure Client 2.5.0.103672, and it looks like it is the copy of the client intended to be included with VMware VirtualCenter (now VMware vCenter).
Update, August 25, 2010: Alternatively, you may download the client from here.
There’s also a trick to getting it to connect. When you launch the client, it will ask you for the server address, name, and password. For the address, you must enter something like “https://[server]:8333” (just “[server]” won’t work). Then, the username and password are the same that you would use to log in to the web interface.
I also got an error the first few times I tried to connect, but I kept trying again without changing anything and it worked on the 3rd or 4th try. Since then, it’s been great. And while the client can’t manage the settings on the VMs (only if the VM’s hardware version is too new — will still have to use the web interface for that), the remote console works fine.
Hopefully, the next major release of VMware Server will either include a separate client again, or address the issues with the web interface (or both!).
Tags: VMware, VMware Server
I’m assuming Tomcat is responsible for running the web interface on port 8333? You’ll need to leave that running, the client actually relies on it to make the connection.
Aaron, thanks for your article. this is just what I needed.
Has been bogged down with with web interface incompatibility with newer firefox browser and the slowness switching between VMs. Just downgraded from ESXi to vmware server and just can’t get used to this web interface.
i’m downloading the client now, apparently my VIC doesn’t work the way you described.
I wonder does that mean we can get rid of the “tomcat” process on vmware server ( im hosting it on one of win2k8 box) to speed up the service ??
I’m assuming you’ve looked into VMware Player and VirtualBox and they don’t suit your needs? (The only thing I can think of that Server offers over these other free offerings is the ability to boot your VM automatically in the background when your machine boots up.)
Thanks… I’m on linux with an XP vm. I’m looking for a client to avoid me having to use the web-based interface. For one thing, it’s causing problems with my upgrade of firefox.
Yeah, that’s right; the client only runs on Windows (though it can manage VMware Server running on Windows or Linux).
Am I right in thinking this is a Windows client though, being a .exe?
Otherwise sounds pretty useful.
My man – you earn a Nobel prize for this. Excellent!
Many thanks, this entire debacle mystefied me for ages.
Yeah, I am aware that VMware Server has been discontinued (I found out shortly after I wrote this article). There is speculation (probably unwarranted) that VMware will introduce a new product to fulfill the same role as VMware Server. Otherwise, we’re stuck with the product we have now, which is really quite nice for running VMs in the background on a host OS that is used for something else, without having to switch to hypervisor-type solution like ESXi.
“Hopefully, the next major release of VMware Server will either include a separate client again, or address the issues with the web interface (or both!).”
No more releases of VMWare Server coming:
“VMware Server was declared End Of Availability on January 2010.”
Support will be discontinued 2011/06/30. Apparently they expect you to switch to ESXi, which is an entire hypervisor operating system. See this thread:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/298465?tstart=0
Dude, u fuckin rock!