The “ESXi Embedded Host Client” is an HTML5 Angular SPA application. It is installed locally on the ESXi host and is lightweight and fast.

It is still in “Fling” status on VMWare Labs but is stable, though lacking in advanced features.

Feature highlights

• VM operations (Power on, off, reset, suspend, etc).
• Creating a new VM, from scratch or from OVF/OVA (limited OVA support)
• Configuring NTP on a host
• Displaying summaries, events, tasks and notifications/alerts
• Providing a console to VMs
• Configuring host networking
• Configuring host advanced settings
• Configuring host services

The current documentation and download links are here: https://labs.vmware.com/flings/esxi-embedded-host-client

Installation/Update

Login as root using SSH

Either download and install using a oneliner:

> ssh root@humle esxcli software vib install -v http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/esxui/esxui–3530804.vib
Or download first, then run the command to either install or update:
> ssh root@humle cd /tmp
> ssh root@humle wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/esxui/esxui–3530804.vib
> ssh root@humle esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/esxui–3530804.vib (to “install”, or when upgrading “update”)