So, this is super exciting for me. With the advent of 6.5 we see the return of the web interface to ESXi. And what a god-send it is! Faster access to your host. No compatibility issues with various versions of vSphere depending on your hosts ( note: you should ALWAYS work on an upgrade path for all your vhosts though, shame on you!) And the list goes on and on. But, you cannot upgrade to 6.5 for various reasons right now. So, are you screwed?
Nope! Not anymore!
You can now install the web interface on any version of ESXi 5.5 and above.
Now, there are some issues/stipulations. And you can get more details over at the VMware Lab Fling page here.
But, once you understand the limitations and issues with your particular version of ESXi… you can go ahead and install the web interface.
So, how? Simple!
- SSH into your ESXi host
- Type the following command esxcli software vib install -v http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/esxui/esxui-signed-latest.vib
Wait for it to do its thing. You now have a web interface!
So, anytime you want to send that pizza… let me know. Its almost lunch time anyway.