To monitor all hosts in your vSphere environment from one place and to simplify host configuration, connect the hosts to a vCenter Server system.

For information about configuration management of ESXi hosts, see the vSphere Networking documentation, the vSphere Storage documentation, and the vSphere Security documentation.

Update Your VMware Host Client Environment to the Latest Version

To evaluate whether you are using the latest version of the VMware Host Client, check what VIBs are installed to your environment and examine the VIBs version information. You can update your VMware Host Client environment by entering a URL or a datastore path to either a VIB or the metadata.zip file in an ESXi offline bundle package.

If you provide a VIB file, an existing VIB that is installed to your VMware Host Client environment is updated to the new VIB.

If you provide an offline bundle, you update the entire ESXi host to the version described by the metadata.zip file in the bundle. Make sure that the entire offline bundle is available through the URL or is uploaded to the datastore.

Procedure

  • ♦ To update your environment to the latest version, perform the following tasks:
    Task Steps
    Upload a VIB to a datastore
    1. Click Storage from the VMware Host Client environment.
    2. Select a datastore from the list and click Datastore browser.
    3. To store the VIB, select a directory and click Upload.
    4. Browse to and double-click the file.
    Upload an offline bundle to a datastore
    1. Download the ESXi offline bundle package.
    2. Upload the ESXi offline bundle package to the ESXi host. You can either upload the offline bundle package by using the Datastore browser or by using SCP or WinSCP.
    3. Extract the contents of the offline bundle on the ESXi host. For example, log in to the host by using SSH.
    4. Navigate to the directory where you uploaded the offline bundle.
    5. Extract the contents by using the 
      unzip
      command.
    Update your environment
    1. Click Manage in the VMware Host Client and click Packages.
    2. Click Install update and enter the URL or the datastore path to a VIB or a metadata.zip file in an offline bundle.
    3. Click Update.
      Caution: If you update an ESXi host managed by vSphere Lifecycle Manager, the host might become non-compliant.
    4. Click Refresh to make sure that the update is successful.

Unable to Connect from the VMware Host Client to an ESXi Host After Upgrading to a Newer Version of ESXi

After you upgrade your ESXi host to a newer version, your browser console might display an error message when you attempt to access the ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, and your connection might fail.

Problem

After you upgrade your ESXi host to a newer version, attempting to navigate to https://host-fqdn/ui or https://1.2.3.4/ui might result in the following error: 
503 Service Unavailable (Failed to connect to endpoint: [N7Vmacore4Http16LocalServiceSpecE:0xffa014e8] _serverNamespace = /ui _isRedirect = false _port = 8308)

Cause

A change to /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf remains after an upgrade and causes the /ui endpoint to override the VMware Host Client.

When the /ticket is missing from the endpoint.conf file on your 6.0 or later ESXi host, your in-browser virtual machine console displays a Failed to connect error message but the VMware Remote Console continues to work.

Solution

  1. Log in to your ESXi host either by using SSH or ESXi Shell.
    If you use SSH, you might need to enable SSH first. You can enable SSH by using DCUI.
  2. Back up the endpoints.conf file. 
    cp /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf /tmp
  3. Open the /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf file in an editor and remove the following line. 
    /ui local 8308 redirect  allow
  4. Restart the rhttpproxy configuration management server. 
    /etc/init.d/rhttpproxy restart
  5. Аccess the VMware Host Client using the host's specified full name in the secure URL with https://host-fqdn/ui or a valid numeric IP address https://1.2.3.4/ui.

Switch to the vSphere Client

To access the full set of capabilities, and advanced administrative and troubleshooting functions of the ESXi host, connect the ESXi host to vCenter Server.

Procedure

  1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Manage with vCenter Server from the drop-down menu.
    The vCenter Server login page opens in a new window.
  2. Enter your credentials and click Login.

Disconnect an ESXi Host from vCenter Server by Using the VMware Host Client

If you no longer want to use the advanced set of capabilities available through vCenter Server for host management, or if vCenter Server has failed and you must perform emergency operations on the host, you can disconnect your ESXi host from vCenter Server.

Disconnecting an ESXi host might take up to several minutes.

Procedure

  1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Disconnect from vCenter Server from the pop-up menu.
    Note: Disconnecting a host signals vCenter Server that this host is not responding.
  2. Click Disconnect from vCenter Server.