Today VMware announced that it will no longer be supporting the vSphere C# client in the next major version of vSphere. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. VMware has been shifting towards this for some time now as they keep improving on their web interface. Earlier, other advanced vSphere functionality as well as plugins such as SRM went web client only. With additions of the embedded host client and a new HTML5 web client fling, it’s clear that this will be the future of GUI management going forward. During a recent discussion on this news, it’s clear there are some concerns about the announcement and the plans going forward.

Right now there is a percentage of the user base that have to use both clients to successfully manage their vSphere environment. My biggest concern revolves around the Client Integration Plugin, which seems to have issues depending on what browser that you want to use. Other things like VUM don’t really work that well in the web client either (not to mention there is still a windows dependency on the VUM server currently). These are all hurdles that VMware will need to overcome, and I'm sure they can in time, the question is will they be ready on GA date.

The biggest hurdle of all will be user acceptance and the learning curve associated with it. There are a lot of users that still like the way the C# client is laid out and avoid the web client at all costs. I know a lot of that was based on the speed of the interface. The jump from 5.5 –> 6.0 saw vast improvements in speed and performance, and I'm sure the next major version will see gains as well.

At this point, my suggestion to everyone is to start getting used to the web client as it is the future of GUI management for vSphere. If you are running 5.5 or 6.0, go ahead and give it a try (you might need to separately install the web client server depending on your vSphere environment). If you are running something older, well now might be a good time to start planning an upgrade! If you need assistance with an upgrade, please don't hesitate to reach out.

This post originally appeared on Sean's blog, Thulin Around. 

By Sean Thulin, Advanced Virtualitzation Consultant