The vSphere Client is used to connect to and manage either ESXi servers individually, or more often to connect to a vCenter server to manage multiple ESXi servers in a single interface (or "pane of glass").

Its a simple but important part of a vSphere deployment, as without it you cannot manage your environment. Ok so you could if you know the vSphere CLI or PowerCLI, but my point is its the main management interface for ESXi and vCenter that you will use day-to-day.

Its extremley easy to install, just a simple next, next, blah and finish.

1. Open the vSphere client in Programs --> VMware --> vSphere Client

2. Enter the IP address/FQDN of the ESXi server or vCenter Server.

3. Enter the username/password for the server (if ESXi this is "root" and for vCenter this is a Windows Account).

4. And there you have it, a blank vCenter Server without any hosts, clusters or VMs at this stage.

Note: VMware have released a new client called the vSphere Web Client to manage vCenter Server. At somepoint in a future release this old vSphere client, installed on each computer managing vCenter will no longer be available.

In fact the new features in vSphere 5.1 are only available to be managed via the vSphere Web Client (so new development has already stopped)!

Next we will install the vSphere Web Client...

• vSphere 5.1 - Part 1 - ESXi Server 5.1 Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 2 - vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 3 - vCenter Inventory Service Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 4 - vCenter Server Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 5 - vSphere Client Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 6 - vSphere Web Client Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 7 - vSphere Update Manager Install