The HostEnvironment section of the configuration file contains the connection parameters for connecting to VMware ESX Server, VMware vCenter Server, or VMware Workstation on a local machine.

[HostEnvironment] parameters are mandatory.

  • You can only specify a single endpoint at a time in the configuration file. For example, if you plan to use a single VMware ESX Server, you can have ThinAppConverter.exe directly connect to that server.

  • You cannot specify more than one ESX server. To use more than one ESX server, configure ThinAppConverter.exe to connect to VMware vCenter Server, which manages multiple ESX servers.

  • You can use a locally installed VMware Workstation.

VirtualMachineHost

The name of the virtual machine to which ThinApp Converter is to connect.

  • To connect a single VMware ESX Server, use the IP address or host name of the ESX server.

  • To connect to VMWare vCenter Server, use the IP address or name of the vCenter server.

  • To connect to a local VMware Workstation instance, use localhost.

  • For VMware ESX Server or VMware vCenter Server, if you are not using standard HTTPS with port 443, you can specify the entire URL.

Virtual machine specified by ESX server hostname

This example shows a virtual machine specified by ESX server hostname.

[HostEnvironment]
VirtualMachineHost=MyEsx.vmware.com

Virtual machine specified by IP address

This example shows a virtual machine specified by IP address.

[HostEnvironment]
VirtualMachineHost=10.13.11.23

Local machine specified as localhost

This example shows a local machine specified as localhost.

[HostEnvironment]
VirtualMachineHost=localhost

HostLoginUserName

The login user name for the host machine.

  • Use the same login user name for connecting to the server as you use for logging in to the VMware vSphere Client. You must have sufficient privileges to turn on and off virtual machines, take virtual machine snapshots, and so on.

  • You can use UPN format when you specify a user name for vCenter. For example, [email protected].

  • HostLoginUserName is ignored when logging into VMware Workstation.

HostLoginPassword or HostLoginPasswordBase64

The login password for the host machine. You have the following options when you specify passwords:

  • You can enter clear text.

  • You can specify a base64-encoded password for the HostLoginPasswordBase64 parameter. Specifying an encoded password does not increase security. You need to protect the actual INI file.

All passwords are handled in the same way.

HostLoginPasswordPrompt

Specifies that the user be prompted to enter a password.

If you do not want to store the vSphere Server password in the configuration file, specify the value as true. When set to true, a prompt always appears, even if a HostLoginPassword is specified in the configuration file.

Typical host environment specification

This example shows a typical host environment specification. The virtual machine name is specified as the ESX server hostname. A password has been specified, however the user is still be prompted to enter as password, as specified in HostLoginPasswordPrompt.

[HostEnvironment]
VirtualMachineHost=MyEsx.vmware.com
HostLoginUserName=root
HostLoginPassword=secret
HostLoginPasswordPrompt=true