Automated Registration of Local vSphere Client

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.

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.