VMware by Broadcom is excited to present the Beta release of the new edition of the VMware Host Client. All customers registered with the vSphere Beta program can access and download the new GUI for ESXi management. You can register to the vSphere Beta program from the dedicated form.
As we have previously announced to the customer community, the legacy VMware Host Client is facing issues from technological and usability perspective and has been put in maintenance mode. For the legacy Client, we are only addressing critical issues related to the security or availability of the GUI. We are fulfilling our promise to deliver a new edition of the Host Client and we are inviting you to download and test the new bits and share your feedback with us.
As this is the first version of the new UI for ESXi mgmt., it is covering the basic flows for host and VM management and operations. We will gradually enhance the functionality with the most important workflows to provide vSphere users with a compelling tool for host mgmt. covering the critical provisioning and troubleshooting use-cases at the ESXi level.
The new Host Client Beta is a web desktop application which can be installed on Mac OS, Windows or Linux. It is not associated to a specific ESXi version and thus can connect to the most recent versions of the hypervisor as well as older ones. While connecting to an ESXi, connection details can be saved to allow seamless switching between the servers.
The look and feel of the new graphical user interface is similar to the user experience of the vSphere Client. The data grids support both list and card layout and offer quick string-based filtering.
As a starting point, the Beta covers the following set of functionality:
- Review host summary – check capacity, hardware, configuration, performance history.
- Review list of VMs located on the ESXI host.
- Manage VM – power operations, snapshots, edit VM settings, open VM console.
- Review alarms, events and warnings related to the ESXi host.
- Live monitoring of tasks related to the ESXi host.
- Datastore management – view details and increase datastore capacity.
For the Beta we also provide the capability for the user to enlist in the Customer Experience Improvement Program allowing the team to collect telemetry from the usage of the interface. You can also share feedback using a dedicated form available from the graphical interface.
We will gradually build capabilities into the new Host Client, adding basic networking, storage mgmt., administration, etc. Stay tuned for the next versions!
Please be aware that the legacy Host Client is entering deprecation state. It will still be available and supported in the generally available version of the next major release of vSphere and will coexist with the new ESXi UI. However, over the course of the updates of the said major release, the support for the legacy Host Client will be terminated and it will not be available for the subsequent major release. We will provide regular updates on this topic.
