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Since the vSphere desktop client is a.NET application, it cannot be used from a Mac. The two options are to use a Windows machine from your Mac or to use the vSphere 5.5 Web Client. Up until now, If you wanted to run the vSphere Client on Mac OS X, you could go about implementing that via VMware Fusion by running a VM in Unity mode. If you didn’t know about Unity view, it removes or hides the VM from the screen and simply displays the applications that are running in the VM. VSphere Web Client has always been intended to be the replacement for the Desktop client, and many of our users have tried to embrace this during the vSphere 5.5 and vSphere 6.0 periods, spending their time working within the Web Client even with the Desktop client available. If you are using a Linux-based pc or Mac OS X and want to manage a vSphere-environment then you might ask yourself the question if there is a native OS-version of the vSphere Client available for your platform. Feb 27, 2016 Re: VMware vSphere Client For Mac OS X 10.9 ebob9 Mar 30, 2015 4:43 PM ( in response to Cyberfed27 ) There was a native client for OSX in preview release of vSphere 6, but it was removed for the final release and no longer works.
In my experiences as a trainer and consultant, I have noticed a large number of VMware engineers using Macs, yet...
for a long time managing vSphere was an all-Windows affair. There are now a few ways to manage a vSphere environment using a Mac. We shall see how effective they are and make sure you know your options.
Since the vSphere desktop client is a .NET application, it cannot be used from a Mac. The two options are to use a Windows machine from your Mac or to use the vSphere 5.5 Web Client.
Using RDP
For a long time the only way to use a Mac to manage vSphere was to not use the Mac. I'll leave out BootCamp -- running Windows natively on a Mac just seems wrong. The simple method is to install the Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDP) client and access a Windows machine. This is very easy, provided you have a Windows machine available and you can work out which keys on the Apple keyboard translate to the corresponding Windows keys.
Using Fusion
Using Fusion
The next method is to use VMware Fusion and run Windows in a VM on your Mac and install the vSphere client on that VM. Fusion does a great job of running Windows and the vSphere client works great. On the less positive side, you now are managing and updating Windows on your Mac as well as OSX. In addition you give up a reasonable amount of RAM to run Windows on your Mac. This is an inefficient way to manage a vSphere environment from a Mac, but it does allow you to use your favorite laptop.
VMware pulls back on Windows dependence
With the release of the vSphere Web Client and vCenter Server Appliance, VMware has broken some of its reliance on Windows. Originally, this simply meant that vCenter didn't need to run on a Windows server. You could use the original Web Client from a Mac to manage configurations and do power control on VMs. But since the old Web Client didn't allow a Mac to interact with the console of a VM, it was a little limiting. Without VM console access, you cannot install an operating system in a VM. With the release of vSphere 5.5, the Web Client now supports a Mac for VM console access. This makes a Mac as capable as a Windows PC for managing with the Web Client, but still no vSphere client.
There are still some gaps in the Web Client, namely integration with other services. VMware's Site Recovery Manager (SRM) plug-in only works with the Windows vSphere client. The same is true for vCenter Update Manager (VUM). Companies using either SRM or VUM will need a Windows machine to manage these components. Since both of these products require Windows machines to run the server components, there shouldn't be too much trouble. Install the vSphere client on these servers and use the old RDP access method.
The non-GUI method
One of the interesting areas is non-GUI administration. On Windows, we have vCLI and PowerCLI to manage vSphere from a command line interface (CLI). Since there is no PowerShell on the Mac side, there is no option to use PowerCLI. Similarly, the vCLI is not supported on Mac -- just on Windows and Linux. Naturally, both PowerCLI and vCLI can be accessed remotely using RDP to Windows or using Secure Socket Shell (SSH) to Linux. You can even install an SSH server on a Windows box to allow you to use SSH from your Mac and run PowerCLI on a remote Windows machine.
While none of those options are great for managing vSphere from a Mac, there is a great Fling called the vSphere Ruby Console. This Fling allows CLI management of vSphere anywhere that Ruby code can be run. Like any CLI tool, the Ruby console has a bit of a learning curve, but after a while, you should be able to do a fair bit of CLI management. The downside of the vSphere Ruby Console is, like all Flings, there is no commercial support.
A better way in the future?
The path to managing vSphere with a Mac has been a slow process. For a long time, the only option was to control a Windows machine from the Mac. It has taken a while, but there has been some progress for Mac tools to manage vSphere directly.
The ideal way to get a platform-independent management console with rich interaction is through HTML5. VMware has HTML5-based access to VMs in Horizon View. When the vSphere Web Client is able to be redeveloped as HTML5, we should see real device independence. Then a Mac should be as good as anything else to manage your infrastructure.
vSphere 5.1 and later provides several schemes for automatic allocation of MAC addresses in vCenter Server. You can select the scheme that best suits your requirements for MAC address duplication, OUI requirements for locally administered or universally administered addresses, and so on.
Vmware Vsphere Mac Client
The following schemes of MAC address generation are available in vCenter Server:
- VMware OUI allocation, default allocation
- Prefix-based allocation
- Range-based allocation
After the MAC address is generated, it does not change unless the virtual machine's MAC address conflicts with that of another registered virtual machine. The MAC address is saved in the configuration file of the virtual machine.
Note:If you use invalid prefix- or range-based allocation values, an error is logged in the vpxd.log file. vCenter Server does not allocate MAC addresses when provisioning a virtual machine.
Vsphere Client 5 Mac
Preventing MAC Address Conflicts
Vsphere Client 6.5 Download
The MAC address of a powered off virtual machine is not checked against the addresses of running or suspended virtual machines.
Installing Ubuntu On Vsphere 5 Client
When a virtual machine is powered on again, it might acquire a different MAC address. The change might be caused by an address conflict with another virtual machine. While this virtual machine has been powered off, its MAC address has been assigned to another virtual machine that has been powered on.
If you reconfigure the network adapter of a powered off virtual machine, for example, by changing the automatic MAC address allocation type or setting a static MAC address, vCenter Server resolves MAC address conflicts before the adapter reconfiguration takes effect.
Vmware View Client Mac
For information about resolving MAC address conflicts, see the vSphere Troubleshooting documentation.