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Back to Basics: Using the vSphere 5.1 Web Client to create a Datacenter object

Duncan Epping · Sep 11, 2012 ·

I am going to assume you already have vCenter 5.1 up and running, if you don’t read this article. Once again, this is a “Back to Basics” series, so don’t expect deepdive info here.

First point your browser to the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Web Client can be found at: https://<IP address or DNS name of your vCenter instance>:9443/vsphere-client/. Now you will see is a question if it is okay to install the “VMware Remote Console Plugin” as shown in the following screenshot.

I recommend installing this plugin  as it greatly enhances the experience. Note that this plugin is only available for supported platforms like Windows and Linux. Currently Mac OS X is not supported. The install procedure is simple:

  • Click on “click here”.
  • Click “Run”.
  • Close all browsers.
  • Click “Next”.
  • Click “I accept the terms…” if you agree and then “Next”.
  • Click “Next” if you want to use the default installation location.
  • Click “Install”.
  • In some cases specific files can in use, the installer will ask if it is allowed to close there. We select “Close applications…”.
  • Click “Finish”

Open the vSphere Web Client again in your browser and login. Now it is time to start creating our Datacenter object. In some cases the browser will now ask if it can run the “VMware Client Support Plug-in”, select “Run” for the full Web Client experience.

I am going to ignore the licensing error for now by clicking the “x” on the top right of this error message. Now we see our normal vSphere Web Client. We will start by clicking on “vCenter”.

First thing we are going to do is create a Datacenter object:

  • This is easiest when you click on “Hosts and Clusters” under “Inventory Trees”.
  • Now click “Create Datacenter” in your “Getting Started” tab.
  • Pick a name for your Datacenter object, we prefer to use the name of the location in the object, and select the “vCenter System” it belongs to.
  • Click “OK”.

Do note that there are multiple ways to do things in the Web Client, I prefer using the “Inventory Trees” as I like the hierarchical views. This is not per se the best way, just the way I prefer doing stuff.

Related

Server, Various 5.1, back 2 basics, vcenter, web client

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mehmet says

    11 September, 2012 at 15:29

    Hi Duncan, I can’t see your web site’s home page from Turkey. I can only see parallel plesk page when goo http://www.yellow-bricks.com since beginning of VMWORLD 2012. But i can see your articles under http://www.yellow-bricks.com if go from vmware blog website.you must solve this problem.

    Thanks for your very helpful posts.

    Mehmet

    • Marko says

      11 September, 2012 at 16:08

      Hi Mehmet,

      same here. After allowing temporary script access for parallels.com (using NoScript plugin for Firefox) everything workes fine. It also works fine after an Firefox restart 🙂

      @Duncan
      It’s funny that I need to allow Parallel to access my system to view an VMware addicted blog 🙂

      Regards

      Marko

    • Duncan Epping says

      11 September, 2012 at 16:51

      Just empty your cache… I had an issue two weeks back,

  2. fletch00 says

    12 September, 2012 at 06:58

    Newly upgraded vCenter 5.1 – keen to try the WEB UI – but it is not answering on the URL you cite – :9443 – firewalls checked – services checked….next debug step?

    thanks!

  3. Valentin says

    12 September, 2012 at 14:23

    Hi Duncan.

    Was curious about the new Web GUI in vSphere 5.1 (mounting my VCP 5.0 lab actually).

    By the way thanks for the great contents.
    Regards,

    V

  4. Paul Braren says

    13 September, 2012 at 23:42

    Great article Duncan, and good to meet you (briefly) at VMworld recently.
    FYI, I recently wrote up a way to make the vSphere web client look and feel much more like an app, and less like a browser, seen here:
    http://tinkertry.com/create-vsphere-web-client-google-chrome-application-shortcut

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About the author

Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist in the Office of CTO of the Cloud Platform BU at VMware. He is a VCDX (# 007), the author of the "vSAN Deep Dive", the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series, and the host of the "Unexplored Territory" podcast.

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