One thing comes up increasingly is folks comparing the Ye Olde vSphere Client with the All New Shiny Web Client. There’s been a number of reports and blogposts about the Web Client, ostensibly stirring up the pot to try create contention and stuff – nothing draws viewers on a slack news day than a spot of glass-half-empty reporting. I’m not sure I altogether agree with the analysis. I don’t think any long term user of vSphere is likely to be deterred from upgrading to vSphere5.5 because of client side issue. In truth the barriers to upgrading remain the same as they have always been with enterprize software – time, competing projects, waiting for 3rd party vendors to get their ducks-in-a-row to support a new vSphere edition – and then checking and upgrading the dependencies….
That started me to think about making a case that works against the prevailing orthodoxy, to argue why the Web Client is faster and better than the vSphere Client. There’s some optimisation that can be done to speed up the Web Client greatly, as well as some overlooked features that actually reduce the overall amount admin an individual might have to do. I think we have to remember who uses graphical clients. It’s the occasionally admin for whom VMware vSphere is just 5%,10%, 15% of their core job. What these folks love about vSphere is how it just looks after itself – in fact many say to me they hardly log in to vCenter/vSphere from one week to the next. And they love this fact. Rather than the technologies they have to login every day to fix because they are broken. To me if your a ‘hardcore’ VMware admin most likely you have already decamped your more frequent tasks to either PowerCLI or a more self-service front-end like vCD or vCAC.
I’d have to say that my own view on the Web Client is being increasingly informed by this series of blogposts. As I carry out more and more configuration tasks with the Web Client on daily basis – I’m beginning to appreciate it over and above the Ye Olde vSphere Client. I guess that’s the case with any UI/client change. Initially, folks can be a bit reluctant to change – as old habits die hard. But over time new client becomes more second nature, and you begin to appreciate it more and more.
With that said I want to be honest about my usage of Web Client. When it first introduce I found it a bit slow in vSphere5.0/5.1. However, I have found it much more responsive in vSphere5.5. In what way do I mean slow? How do we measure slowness compared to what? The vSphere Client? I guess what I’m speaking off is the whirling gears which appear when browsing:
If you change your Adobe Flash caching settings these gears will appear disappear so quickly – you will need screen recording software in order capture images like the above. I had to Screenflow on the Mac to record this event, so I can then grab it from a paused recording. That’s how big a difference Adobe Flash settings can be.
UPDATE: I will be continually updating this blogpost with new finds as I work my way through this “Back To Basics” series. As I know I’m sure to find new features and enhancements along the way…
1. Change your Adobe Flash Settings
I got this tip from William Lam who works at VMware. So all due credit must go to him (or whoever told him this tidbit). By default Flash grants a tiny amount of cache to each Flash-enabled site your web-browser hits. I’m mean kilobytes. Simply increasing this cache for your vCenter Web Client URLs massively speeds it up. I’m sorry to shameless rip of Williams Quick Tip, but I think this is SO important I want to shout it from the roof tops so as many people in the community know about this small bit of optimization. Basically, on the machine you do your admin navigate to:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
Locate your vCenter URL(s) and move the slider bar all the way to the 10MB. So in my case vcnyc has already been reconfigured, but vcnj (my new vCenter for New Jersey) has not…
As for the best browser to use. I have preference for FireFox because it allows you to easily add untrusted self-signed certificates to bypass any invalid certificate warnings. Last week I saw Michael Armstrong demonstrating his homelab using Google Chrome. I’m thinking of switching to Google Chrome in my homelab because it was sooo much quicker.
2. Remembering where you are
Often I want to compare one object in vCenter to another. Lets I’m comparing the Health scores in vCOPS from the Web Client (a nice piece of integration with Web Client that you don’t really get with vSphere Client. When you click from one object to another inventory it will take you to same location. I find that handy when comparing the health value of one object to another…
3. Bulk Administration – Mounting NFS
One thing I do like about well designed UI is when you have as task on one object that you need to carry out with many. Of course, you could always do this with PowerCLI – and certainly if you were doing the same task over and over again – it would be worth the investment in time to script that process. Occasionally, I have ad-hoc tasks that need to be done to every host. One example this week was I need to mount a NFS share to all my hosts called “backup”. With the vSphere Client I’d have to select each host, and select >>Configuration >>Storage >>Add Storage and run through the NFS mount on each host individually. Not so with the Web Client.
It’s possible to right-click the Datacenter/Cluster and Select New Datastore – and if you working with NFS select which hosts in the Datacenter/Cluster should mount the storage
4. Bulk Administration – Distributed Switch Template Host
If your creating a Distributed Switch for the first time – you will find there’s an option called “Template Mode”…
If your ESX hosts are identical – for example vmnic2/3 will always be added to Uplink1/2 or LAG1-0 and LAG1-1, then this allows to configure one host, and apply those settings to every host that’s added to the Distributed Switch.
The Ye Olde vSphere Client does support the concept of the “Template Host”, as such you must add each host in list, and click which vmnics will be used. If you have significant number of hosts, that’s quite a bit of unnecessary clicking.
6. Bulk Administration – Assigning VMkernel IP Addresses with Distributed Switches
This template host approach pays dividends if you are assign IP addresses to VMkernel ports – say when your setting up VMotion, FT, HA-Heartbeat or IP-based storage. It’s possible to assign an IP address to the “template hosts”, and then apply that setting to all the hosts. When you do a pop-dialog box will appear which allows you to assign a range of IP address to the remaining hosts that you selected. You specify a starting IP followed by #N value to indicate how many IP address you wish to assign in contiguous block…
This saves bags of time – avoiding looping round the same wizard for each and every host…
6. Version 10 Virtual Machines…
If you using the Web Client you will be able to create new VMs and upgrade old VMs to use the latest and greatest version 10 hardware level. In fact the only way to access the new hardware level is via the Web Client. Once created you cannot manage version 10 VMs from the Ye Olde vSphere Client.
Do you want to have remember which VMs are version10 or later, and remember which client you can use with which? Nope, I didn’t think so. It’s far simpler and easier just to use the Web Client at all times. It’s tempting toggle between the old and new client, but it will just annoy you at the end of the day, especially when you hit this dialog box. Incidentally, this message only appears on a right-click of VM10 machine. If you for example drag-and-drop a VM10 from one portgroup to another, the warning doesn’t appear…
7. Multiple Select
You have always been able to select multiple items in the Ye Olde vSphere Client, but that’s wasn’t possible in all object types. In the Web Client multiple select has been enabled in many places which reduces the amount of clicking, and looping round in a number of wizards. Here’s a good example. When you create Standard Switch, and you want to add multiple network cards, you just highlight and add them.
Whereas if you create a Standard Switches with the Ye Old vSphere Client, you will find yourself looping around. Again, it’s an example where a particular task is quicker, than using the older client.
8. Quick Filters
One thing the Web Client has, and the Ye Older vSphere Client doesn’t is quick filters. These allow you to restrict popular views just to show the information you want. For instance in the screen grab below and I’m filtering the view VMware Tools where its either Not Installed, Upgrade Available or 3rd party version is in use (most likely a virtual appliance). The first icon on the left shows the list of Quick Filters, and the icon next to it clears the filter – and of course, you can always just use plain text as filter as well. The vSphere Client supports filters, but not these Quick Filters
9. Integration with vCOPS
The Web Client integrates closely with vCOPS so you get vCOPS “Badges” on most objects, as well as “Health” columns if you click at a badge. The Health column provides a greater amount of detail, together with links directly into vCOPS itself.
