Symptoms:

 

The vSphere Web Client is a browser-based interface for configuring and administering virtual machines enabling you to connect to a vCenter Server system to manage an ESXi host through a browser. The following procedure describes how to configure the vSphere Web Client to display Zerto Virtual Replication dialogs.

This procedure is valid for vSphere Web Client version 5.1 communicating with either version 5.0, 5.1 or 6.0 of vCenter Server.

 

Notes: The following procedure assumes that the vSphere Web Client version 5.1 has been installed.  Although you can run the vSphere Web Client version 5.1 with vCenter Server 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0, when installing the vSphere Web Client you need access to a vCenter Server version 5.1 which includes an option for single sign on, required by the vSphere Web Client installation.

Solution:

To configure the vSphere Web Client for Zerto Virtual Replication with a Windows-based vCenter server, using the vSphere Web Client Plugin Enabler:

  1. Copy VsphereWebClientPluginEnabler.exe and VsphereWebClientPluginEnabler.pdb  to the machine running the vCenter server and vSphere Web Client service. These files are located in the Zerto Virtual Replicationfolder under the folder where Zerto Virtual Replication was installed.
    • Note: you can copy the files to any directory on the relevant machine.
  2. Run VsphereWebClientPluginEnabler.exe as administrator.
  3. On a client machine, start the vSphere Web Client.
  4. If the browser in use is Chrome or Firefox browsers, you must load the ZVR GUI in a separate tab at least once before it appears inside the vSphere Web Client.
    • Note: the ZVR GUI must be accessed via the external address configured in the ZVM installation (either by hostname, or IP address).
  5. In your browser, navigate to a vSphere node supported by Zerto Virtual Replication and choose the Classic Solutions tab, which is now displayed after the Related Objects tab:
    • The vCenter Server root node
    • A datacenter Sphere node
    • A cluster node
    • A vApp node
    • A virtual machine node
    • Note: If prompted, allow blocked content to be displayed. The Classic Solutions tab is displayed when there is a plugin installed, in this case the Zerto Virtual Replication user interface plugin.
  6. If more than one plug-in is installed, click Zerto to display the Zerto Virtual Replication UI. 
To manually configure the vSphere Web Client for Zerto Virtual Replication with a Windows-based vCenter server:

 

  1. In the directory where the vSphere Web Client program data is saved, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%VMwarevSphere Web Client,  open the webclient.properties file in a text editor.
    • The default is C:ProgramDataVMwarevSphere Web Client.
  2. Add the following to the file:
    • scriptPlugin.enabled = true
  3. Restart the VMware vSphere Web Client service.
    • Note: After the service has restarted you might have to wait a few minutes before you can open the vSphere Web Client in your browser.
  4. In your browser, navigate to a vSphere node supported by Zerto Virtual Replication and choose the Classic Solutions tab, which is now displayed after the Related Objects tab:
    • The vCenter Server root node
    • A datacenter Sphere node
    • A cluster node
    • A vApp node
    • A virtual machine node
    • Note: If prompted, allow blocked content to be displayed. The Classic Solutions tab is displayed when there is a plugin installed, in this case the Zerto Virtual Replication user interface plugin.
  5. If more than one plugin is installed, click Zerto to display the Zerto Virtual Replication UI.
To configure the vSphere Web Client for Zerto Virtual Replication with a Linux-based vCenter appliance:

  1. Run the following commands via CLI:
    • In vCenter Server 5.0 or 5.1:
      1. echo "scriptPlugin.enabled = true" >> /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties
      2. service vsphere-client restart
    • In vCenter Server 6.0:
      1. echo "scriptPlugin.enabled = true" >> /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties
      2. service vsphere-client restart
  2. In your browser, navigate to a vSphere node supported by Zerto Virtual Replication and choose the Classic Solutions tab, which is now displayed after the Related Objects tab:
    • The vCenter Server root node
    • A datacenter Sphere node
    • A cluster node
    • A vApp node
    • A virtual machine node
    • Note: If prompted, allow blocked content to be displayed. The Classic Solutions tab is displayed when there is a plugin installed, in this case the Zerto Virtual Replication user interface plugin.
  3. If more than one plugin is installed, click Zerto to display the Zerto Virtual Replication UI.

Affected versions:
2.0 Update 3 (Xeme) and greater
Hypervisor:
VMWare