You can register your local vSphere Client with the vCenter Server instance using an automated method that applies only to the vCenter Server Appliance.

The SDK provides a registration script that you can run on your development machine. The script connects to the vCenter Server Appliance and configures your local Web browser application to interact with it.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have access to the vCenter Server Appliance.
  • Verify that SSH is enabled on the vCenter Server Appliance.
  • Verify that the bash shell is enabled on the vCenter Server Appliance.

    See Toggling the vCenter Server Appliance default shell, https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2100508.

Procedure

  1. Set the environment variable VMWARE_CFG_DIR to specify the directory where the script will place the configuration files it creates.
    On a Windows development machine, set the variable to C:\Program Data\VMware\vCenter Server\cfg.
    On a MacOS development machine, set the variable to /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/.
  2. In a command window, navigate to the vCenter registration scripts folder under tools in your SDK installation.
  3. Run the registration script with the following parameters:
    • -vcip vc server ip is the IPv4 address of the vCenter Server instance where you want to register your local vSphere Client.
    • -u SSH username is the user account to authenticate the SSH connection with the vCenter Server instance.
    • -pw SSH password is the password for the SSH username.
    • -p vc server ssh port is the port on which the vCenter Server instance serves the SSH connection. The parameter is optional. The default value is 22.
    • On a Windows development machine, the script is server-registration.bat.
    • On a MacOS development machine, the script is server-registration.sh.
    ./server-registration.sh -vcip 192.0.2.1 -u myUser -pw myPassword -p 22
    Note: To view the full list of parameters for the script, use the --help option.
  4. Start the local vSphere Client by running the startup script located in your_SDK_folder/html-client-sdk/vsphere-ui/server/bin.
    • On a Windows development machine, the script is startup.bat.
    • On a MacOS development machine, the script is startup.sh.
    Note: You might need to make the script executable: chmod +x startup.sh
  5. Open a Web browser and log into your local vSphere Client at https://localhost:9443/ui.
    Your local vSphere Client connects to the vCenter Server instance and displays the vSphere inventory.

What to do next

You can deploy your custom plug-ins to the local vSphere Client and verify whether the plug-ins function properly in your development environment before deploying them on the remote Web browser applications.