My Own ESXi Server Part 12 Running vSphere Client from Mac OS

VMware provides a vSphere Client for Windows only.  I showed in my last post that you can access a vSphere Client running on Windows from Ubuntu and make it appear to run as just another application.  So what about Mac OS X?  It turns out that since Remote Desktop Connection for Mac is available, we can do exactly the same as Ubuntu.  See my previous post My Own ESXi Server Part 11 Running vSphere Client from Ubuntu.

As with the Linux setup, remote desktop must be set up on the Windows system.  See my post  Remote Desktop Part 2 - Getting Back to Windows on how to configure.  I ran into one big problem in that even though I can remote desktop back into Windows XP, I could not get it to run just one application.  After all my futile efforts, I switched to using Windows 2003 Server and this worked like a charm.

How to Run vSphere Client from Mac OS

1) Start the Remote Desktop Connection for Mac app.

2) Enter the ip address or the name of the server.  Do NOT click Connect yet!

3) Go to the top menu and select RDC > Preferences

4) On the Login tab, fill in User name and domain fields.

5) On the Applications tab, check Start only the following Windows-based application.

Add the Application path and file name for vSphere Client on the Windows 2003 server. I added C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\VpxClient.exe

For Working directory,

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\

6) Close the Preferences window.

7) Using the top menu , select File > Save As...

8) Enter name and click Save.

9) From now on, when you start you select File > Open a Saved Connection.. or File > Open a Recent Connection. Select the appropriate RDP connection.

10) Enter Password and click OK.

11) Click Connect.

12) Enter User name and Password for the ESXi Server, and click Login.

13) You have now successfully gained access to vSphere Client! When you are done, exit by closing the vSphere Client window.

Related Posts:
Part 1  The Time Has Come
Part 2  Running ESXi on VMware Fusion
Part 3  Building My ESXi Server
Part 4  Installing ESXi 4 on a USB Stick
Part 5  Installing vSphere Client on Windows
Part 6  Updating ESXi using vSphere Host Update Utility
Part 7  Browsing the VMware ESXi Datastore
Part 8  WinSCP to the Rescue
Part 9  Creating a VM
Part 10  Downloading a Virtual Machine
Part 11  Running vSphere Client from Ubuntu
Part 12  Running vSphere Client from Mac OS
Part 13  Adding/Removing a VM to ESXi
Part 14  Export in ESXi
Part 15  Deploying OVF Templates
Part 16  Adding a License Key