Tips & Tricks

Running the vSphere Web Client via Remote Desktop Manager

BenLiebowitz vsphere web client remote desktop manager review devolutions
Ben Liebowitz

Ben Liebowitz is a VCP and System Engineer who manages a team of IT professionals at a global news organization based in New Jersey. The organization employs 4000 people, and Ben personally oversees and manages over 1000 unique remote connections.

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THIS ARTICLE WRITTEN BY BEN LIEBOWITZ, VCP AND SYSTEM ENGINEER, IS PART OF OUR GUEST BLOG SERIES. PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE FEATURED ON OUR BLOG.

As you may have seen, I really like a tool from a company called Devolutions called Remote Desktop Manager. I use it to manage my RDP sessions, Credentials, SSH sessions, as well as my iDRAC/iLO connections. It also manages my connections to my VMware environments. For the environments that support the VI Client, I have set those up here as connections to the vCenter Web Client!

First, you have to make sure you have the connection working properly via the web browser of your choice. Here, I’m using Chrome. You’ll also need to make sure you have the vCenter Client Integration Plugin installed.

I created an entry for each of my vCenter environments. In Remote Desktop Manager, choose where you want to place these connections, right click and select NEW ENTRY. Scroll down and choose WEB BROWSER (http/https). Then click OK.

Running the vSphere Web Client via Remote Desktop Manager
Running the vSphere Web Client via Remote Desktop Manager

Change the browser to Google Chrome, check to Ignore Certificate Errors, and enter the name of your vCenter and the Web Browser URL.

Running the vsphere web client via remote desktop manager
Running the vsphere web client via remote desktop manager

I also selected the Advanced tab, checked the Automatic Refresh box, and set the timer to 55 minutes. This way, I don’t get logged out of my session until I’m ready. ??

Remote desktop manager advanced tab
Remote desktop manager advanced tab

As it’s Java, we cannot set credentials to pass… So you’re good to click OK and attempt connection.

You’ll be prompted for the Client Integration Plugin to run. Select Remember My Choice (though it’ll prompt you each time, so you can skip this if you want) and click YES.

Remote desktop manager client integration plugin
Remote desktop manager client integration plugin

The page will load, and in a few seconds the box will light up to log in using windows session authentication.

Remote desktop manager session authentification
Remote desktop manager session authentification

Click the checkbox and you can now log in!

Remote desktop manager sign in
Remote desktop manager sign in

And you’re IN. And it’s very easy to connect again, next time!

Remote desktop manager vsphere web client
Remote desktop manager vsphere web client

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