Fat client users rejoice! The VMware Remote Console (VMRC) 7.0 is now available for download! VMware brought VMRC back in response to Google’s announcement that they would drop NPAPI (Netscape Plugin API) support in Chrome by the end of 2014. The new console, released on October 21st, brings many of the C# client console features back to the web client. Users of vCenter 5.5 Update 2b have two new options on their VM’s summary tab. Open with VMRC and download VMRC. The download VMRC link which previously took users to a KB article, now redirects to an active download page.
The “new” remote console brings many of the C# features such as the ability to shut down and restart guests; however, power off and reset are still absent.
You can also configure some of the more common VM settings without having to switch back to the vSphere Web Client.
While it’s not quite as feature complete as the C# console, it still has 95% of your most commonly used options and is a great alternative to the more limited web console. Great work VMware!
Is anyone else having issues downloading this software? I’m getting the following error:
“Unable to Complete Your Request. We cannot complete your request at this time. We are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible”.
No problems here currently.
Yes, “Unable to Complete Your Request” has been happening for about a week. It’s pretty annoying.
Is this remote console strictly for M$ OS? What about all of our linux hosts? How do I connect to console window?
Yes, currently VMRC is only available on Windows but supposedly VMware is working on an OS X version. I don’t have experience launching the web client from Linux so I don’t want to mis-inform anyone. However, mihailim offers a good response in the VMware Communities here… https://communities.vmware.com/message/2395193
OK, this is a cool tool. But riddle me this Batman, when I open it a new, blank tab opens to the side of the existing vCenter tab (I use Firefox btw). Later when I close it, the blank tab stays open. a) that’s how its supposed to work, b) wow something is wrong or c) geez I don’t know better open a case with Support. Thanks for the VM Spot info.
Hold it right there, Joker! This is exactly how the VMware Remote Console is supposed to launch. Take another look at the URL in that new tab. See how it says vmrc://clone:…? This is the URI to launch the VMRC executable and tell it how to connect to your VM. Once the VMRC has established a connection with your VM, you can close the tab or even the browser. Since the VMRC is a standalone executable it will run independent of your browser. VMware chose to launch the VMRC this way instead of using any more plugins.
All this magic is configured in the registry. Open Regedit to \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\vmrc\shell\open\command to see how it works! What’s even cooler is that you can build your own tools to launch VMRC automatically!
Thanks for a great question!
Cheers!
Matt