Installing vSphere Web Client

In this recipe, I will discuss the steps required to install vSphere Web Client.

The vSphere Web Client is an independent server component that is installed and then accessed via the web browser. It is independent because, unlike the older web client or the vSphere Client based on C#, you no longer have to connect the client to the vCenter Server. It connects to its own server and this server component is installed from the vSphere 5.1 installation's welcome screen.

The vSphere Web Client will let you add multiple vCenter Servers to its web-based GUI. Although, I will be using vSphere Web Client for most of the tasks in the chapters, you could still use the vSphere Client based on C# to perform the same tasks. Having said that, there are certain tasks that can only be done using the vSphere Client. For example, the VMware Update Manager plugin is not available for the vSphere Web Client.