VMware ESXi 5 Lab Setup - Part 3 The vSphere Client
Welcome to part 3 of this multi-part series on Installing VMware ESXi5. In this part we will go over downloading the vSphere client and attaching to the ESXi Server. In part 1 we went over installing the ESXi hypervisor onto the host. The vSphere Client is where you will do a majority of your management.
Please note that this software requires at least .net 3.5 to be installed. If you have it installed ahead of time you will save some time on your installation. In our documentation we will be installing this on a clean XP install, so there will be no .net framework and we will get the screen shots.
The first step is to open your favorite browser and browse to the ip address or dns name of the ESXi host. Depending upon your browsers settings you will probably get a warning about the sites certificate. This is due to the fact that VMware uses self-signed certificates.
This will take you to the VMware ESXi 5 Welcome page. Under the getting started section you will see a link to Download vSphere Client. Click on this and save the file to your local computer.
Depending upon your network, it should take about 2 minutes for the file to download. Once it has downloaded, double click on the exe file and this will start your standard Windows installation. Depending upon your security settings you may get a warning on opening the file. Click on Run to open the file if you do.
Once the file starts executing it will extract all of the files into a temp directory. Once this is complete you will get a screen for the VMware vSphere Client 5.0 InstallSheild Wizard. Select the language you want to use and click ok.
Next you will see a screen saying that the Installation wizard is preparing. Once this is done you will get the standard Welcome to the installation wizard screen. Click Next.
The next screen you will see a lovely list of all of the VMware End-User Patent Agreements. Be sure to look up each of these to fully understand all of the proprietary rights VMware has :-p 2 weeks later you will be able to click next.
This will bring you to the classic EULA. Ready for some more reading! Read through the entire EULA so that you fully understand the licensing agreement that you are agreeing to and select the radio button that says I agree to the terms in the license agreement. Then Click Next :-)
Now we get into the meat of the installation. On the Customer Information screen fill out your user name and Organization info and click Next.
In the Destination Folder screen you have the option of clicking on the change button, to select a installation destination. In our case we will just keep the default. Once you have selected your destination click Next.
Finally you get to the Ready to Install the Program screen. Click on Install
The first thing that this installer will check for is if .net 3.5 or higher is installed on your machine. In this case it is not. When the install starts you will see an extracting file screen go by. This will be followed by a Setup Screen; this is for the .net 3.5. Eventually you will get to the Welcome to setup screen.
You get to read another thrilling EULA. Once you are done reading this click on the radio button that you have read and ACCEPT the terms of the Licensing agreement. You also have the option to send data to MS. We will leave this unchecked. It is up to you if you would like to do this.
Once all of these decisions are made you can then click on Install.
You will see a status bar for the download go by pretty fast, and then you will see the status bar for Installing. This will take some more time, depending upon your system. Once it is complete you will get the Setup Complete Screen. Click on Exit.
Now back to the vSphere Client install! You will see a status bar and info on copying new files, installing client help, registering the product, ect. Eventually you will get to the Installation Completed Screen. Click on Finished.
That is all there is to it. You now have the vSphere client installed on your machine. Next we will look at using the vSphere client to attach to the ESXi Host and do some of the standard configurations.