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Availability of vSphere Client for Linux systems (1006095)
Purpose
This article provides information about the availability of the vSphere Client for Linux systems.
Resolution
The vSphere Client is only available for Windows systems and it is not available for Linux systems.
In vCenter Server 4.x, vSphere Web Access, a subset of vSphere Client functionality, can be used from Linux systems. For more information about vSphere Web Access, see the vSphere Web Access Administrator's Guide.
In vCenter Server 5.0, the vSphere Web Client can be used from Linux platforms as well. The vSphere Web Client includes a subset of the functions available in the vSphere Client. For more information, see the vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client section of the vSphere 5.0 Virtual Machine Administration Guide.
This table provides a comparison of the two clients in vSphere 5.1:
vSphere Client
vSphere Web Client
For infrastructure configuration and day-to-day operations
For day-to-day operations
Locally-installed application
Web application
Runs only on Windows
Cross-platform
Can connect to vCenter Server or directly to hosts
Can connect only to vCenter Server
Full range of administrative functionality except for new features introduced in vSphere 5.1
Full range of administrative functionality
Users: Virtual infrastructure administrators for specialized functions
Users: Virtual infrastructure administrators, help desk, network operations center operators, virtual machine owners.
Additional Information
In vSphere 5.1, all new vSphere features are available only through the vSphere Web Client. The traditional vSphere Client continues to operate, supporting the same feature set as vSphere 5.0, but not exposing any of the new features in vSphere 5.1.
vSphere 5.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include the traditional vSphere Client. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the vSphere Web Client.
For vSphere 5.1, bug fixes for the traditional vSphere Client are limited to security or critical issues. Critical bugs are deviations from specified product functionality that cause data corruption, data loss, system crash, or significant customer application down time where no workaround is available that can be implemented.
05/10/2011 - Updated to reflect vSphere, linked to new documentation.
07/03/2012 - Added vCenter Server 5.0 to Products
10/09/2012 - Added a note regarding the vSphere Web Client to Additional Information
11/02/2012 - Added link to KB 2005083
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