SER1411BE vSphere Clients Roadmap: HTML5 Client, or ... · Achieving Faster vSphere Client releases • vSphere major releases traditionally every 1.5-2 year cycles, and vSphere Client

Dennis Lu, Product Manager, VMwareTushar Desai, R&D Director, VMware

SER1411BE

#VMworld #SER1411BE

vSphere Clients Roadmap: HTML5 Client, Host Client and Web Client

VMworld 2017 Content: Not fo

r publication or distri

bution

• This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.

• This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.

• Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

• Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.

• Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not been determined.

Disclaimer

#SER1411BE CONFIDENTIAL 3



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Agenda

• Host Client

• vSphere 6.5

• vSphere Client

• Plugins and Certification

4

Poll Everywhere

mobile app



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What do you want to hear about today? Check all that interest you

5

Visit pollev.com/vmw2017

A – vSphere Web Client in 6.5

B – vSphere Client (HTML5) UX improvements available in 6.5, 6.5.0b, 6.5U1

C – vSphere Client (HTML5) in general

D – Plugins and Certification



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VMware Host Client

6

• Troubleshoot individual host or VMs

• Conduct basic administrative tasks such as

the create/update/delete of host resources

• Greenfield deployment

• Available in 6.0U2+ and 5.5P08

Expected Use Cases

• Available via the browser (Windows, Linux,

Mac)

• Negligible host resource requirements

• Console access to VM through WebMKS

• Iterative development cycle and releases

• Modern cross platform focus using HTML5

Host Client attributes



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7

C# Client not in vSphere 6.5



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vSphere Web Client 6.5



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vSphere 6.5 Web Client Improvements

• Client Integration Plugin

• Navigation Improvements

• Custom Attributes

• VM Consoles

• VM Workflow Performance Optimizations

• Live Updates

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Client Integration Plugin Removal

10

Client Integration Plugin has many issues

Problem

Remove the need for CIP for:

• Datastore File Upload/Download

• OVF Deploy/Export

• Content Library Import/Export

Enhanced Authentication plugin needed for:

• Integrated Windows Authentication

Solution



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Two navigational models (Inventory Tree

and Global Inventory Lists) cause confusion

Problem

• Inventory Tree is displayed by default

after you login

• Search is context-sensitive and takes

you to either Inventory Tree or Object

Navigator

Solution

Navigation Improvements - Inventory Tree

11



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Navigation Improvements – Object Tabs

CONFIDENTIAL 12

Object tabs are now more prominent



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Navigation Improvements – Tab Reorganization

CONFIDENTIAL 13

Tabs have been flattened to reduce clicks



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Navigation Improvements – More Object Actions

14

Objects have one-click action buttons



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Navigation Improvements – Home Reorganization

15

Reordered the links and icons on the home screen



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Custom Attributes

16

Tags do not satisfy all use cases that

Custom Attributes had

Problem

Bring back Custom Attributes! Portlets and

Editing UI

Solution

Portlet

Editing UI



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17

VM Consoles – Choose Your Preferred Console

There are two VM consoles (Web Console

and VMRC) and it is confusing which one is

opened when

Problem

Add a user configuration which allows to

choose a preferred console

Solution



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VM Workflow Performance Optimizations

18

Top 3 Web Client workflows (based on CEIP):

1. VM Configuration (Edit Settings)

2. VM Migration

3. VM Provisioning (New VM, Clone VM)

The three most popular wizards have

performance issues in big-scale

environments

Problem

Optimize performance

Solution



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Live Updates

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Web Client does not represent newest

information, in particular results of others’

actions

Problem

Near instantaneous updates of most

important views: Inventory Trees, Alarms,

Summary, Lists, Recent Tasks

Solution



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Do you have vSphere 6.5?

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A – Yes, in a production environment

B – Yes, but only in a test environment

C – No, plan on starting upgrade within 3 months

D – No, plan on upgrading later than 3 months

E – No plans to upgrade at this point at all




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Do you have experience with vSphere Client (HTML5)?

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A – Yes, I use the Fling in most of my environments

B – Yes, within vSphere 6.5 in production

C – Yes, only in test environments (Fling or 6.5)

D – No, haven’t had a chance to try

E – No, never heard of the new vSphere Client



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Flash based vSphere Web Client will be Deprecated



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vSphere Client

6.5GA, 6.5.0b, 6.5U1, and beyond!



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vSphere 6.5 GA

• Launched on Nov 15th, 2016 with first supported release of vSphere Client

• Not all features supported, but basic VM management available

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vSphere 6.5.0b

• Launched on March 14th, 2017

• ~4 months of additional development time

• ~100 additional features added

• Most daily use cases covered

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vSphere 6.5U1

• Launched on July 27th, 2017

• ~4 months of additional development time

• ~100 additional features added

• Expected 90% of time covered for users, 100% for VM operators

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Achieving Faster vSphere Client releases

• vSphere major releases traditionally every 1.5-2 year cycles, and vSphere Client is

part of vSphere!

• Goal: Get more value to customers through faster delivery

• How do we deliver faster?

– Huge engineering investment in developers, testing automation, dev-ops

infrastructure

– Cultural change from top to bottom – execs, managers, developers

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Fighting the Good Fight

1. Start with the Fling – control our own release cycle

2. Provide high quality from day one with production quality Fling – so users will

try it out

3. Invest in testing automation – improves release speed

4. Close the loop – customer feedback goes directly back into the product with

weekly Flings

5. Finally, release into 6.5 patches/updates with proven value and quality

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vSphere Client – High level feature-set for 6.5U1

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Area Workflow Web Client

(Flash/Flex)

vSphere

Client

(HTML5)

Comments

vCenter

Monitor

Configure Configuring support bundle is

missing

Child object tabs

VM

Monitor

Configure

vMotion

Storage vMotion

Cross vCenter

vMotion

OVF/OVA

Content

Library

Some Advanced features

Datastore

Monitor

Configure

Operations + Folder Upload

+ Multi-file Download

Datastore

Cluster

Monitor

Configure

SPBM Manage Read-only

Area Workflow Web Client

(Flash/Flex)

vSphere

Client

(HTML5)

Comments

Network

Monitor

Configure

Operations

Distributed

Switch

Monitor Health checks are missing

Configure Advanced features are missing -

NIOC, LACP, Traffic filtering,

Backup & Restore

Topology

Operations Template mode is not available

when managing hosts on the VDS

Host

Monitor

Configure Host networking diagrams are

missing

TCP/IP stacks are not integrated

in Add Networking workflow.

Operations

Cluster

Monitor

Configure Proactive HA configuration is

missing

Complete

Partial

Not yet implemented



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vSphere Client

30



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Client Integration Plugin Removal

Client Integration Plugin has many issues

Problem

Remove the need for CIP for:

• Datastore File Upload/Download

• OVF Deploy/Export

• Content Library Import/Export

Enhanced Authentication plugin needed for:

• Integrated Windows Authentication

Solution

vSphere

6.5



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32

vSphere

6.5Custom Attributes

Tags do not satisfy all use cases that

Custom Attributes had

Problem

Bring back Custom Attributes! Portlets and

Editing UI

Solution



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New Category on Tags• New UI to Create New Category from the tag creation

vSphere

6.5



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Live Updates

34

vSphere

6.5



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Recent tasks and Alarms

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• Expand/Collapse Recent tasks and Alarms pane at the bottom of the screen

vSphere

6.5



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Advanced and Overview Charts

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vSphere

6.5b



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No Login for Users Without Permissions

37

Users without permissions on any of the

VCs can still login in the vSphere Client but

see empty inventory

Problem

Do not allow users without any permissions

on the VC objects to login and show an

error message

Solution

vSphere

6.5b



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38

Dashboard on the home page• Dashboard that shows the overall aggregated data (CPU, memory, storage, VMs, etc.) about each vCenter

vSphere

6.5b



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Administration - Roles

• New UI workflow to create Roles.

vSphere

6.5b



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Administration – Global Permissions

• New UI workflow to create Global Permissions.

vSphere

6.5b



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Storage Troubleshooting

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Cluster > Monitor > Storage Overview

6.5U1



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Datastore File Management – Download Multiple Files

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6.5U1



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Datastore File Management –Upload Folder

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The three most popular wizards have

performance issues in big-scale

environments

Problem

Optimize performance

Solution

6.5U1



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vSphere Client Tips

• Browser Bookmarks (shareable!)

• Browser Forward/Back

• Shortcut Keys – VM Power Ops (ctrl+alt+B, etc)

• Browser zoom in/out



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Fling Info and Stats

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• Deployed as an appliance pointed at existing vCenter 6.0 or 6.5

• Supports subset of workflows, growing weekly

• ~25,000 deployments, 57 updates

• Dozens using in their ‘largest environment’ (40% of survey respondents), including one environment at 3,000+ VMs, 100+ Hosts

Try it now!

labs.vmware.com



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https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client

Feedback – We Hear You!

• Feedback tool

• Customer ExperienceImprovement Program

• Fling forum

• Customer surveys

• Social Media

46

If VMware can hold its various

teams to the high standard set by

the HTML5 client, it should have

nothing to worry about for years to

come."

Thank you thank you thank you

thank you thank you thank you

thank you thank you thank ... for

creating this HTML5 interface, my

god it is nice to use :-)VMworld 2017 Content: Not fo


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vSphere Client Vision

• Disclaimer: We make no guarantees or commitments on timing or order of delivery of functionality

• High level:

– Common functionality first -> eventually all functionality

– Followed by new features and further enhancements

– Includes completely partially delivered features and currently unsupported features

• Priority is driven by user needs:

47

We need your

feedback!



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Product Feedback – What do we need?

• Nice feedback:

– “Ohh, one year!! Congratulations guys and happy birthday, it's one of the best Products I've ever seen.

• Semi-Useful:

– “All tasks show as Invalid Date in the H5 client. Please accommodate non-US date format”

– Missing: User email address

• Useful feedback:

– “Being able to manage Licenses/Updates would be good”

– Room for improvement: more specific -> which portion of licensing would be most useful?

48



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Providing Actionable Product Feedback

• Do:

– Include Email address so we can contact you for follow-up questions

– Include screenshots

– Be specific as possible: [VM] -> Summary -> VM Hardware portlet, or [Host] -> Configure -> Networking -> VMkernel adapters -> Refresh

– Stay on the latest versions if possible, many fixes and improvements go in every week

• Don’t:

– Forget any of the above

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vSphere Client – Other Interesting Links

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• FAQ about clients in vSphere 6.5: https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2147929

• Blog announcement of 6.5.0b: https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2017/03/first-vsphere-client-html5-update-vsphere-6-5-b.html

• Functionality list (includes dedicated section for items added between 6.5 and 6.5.0b): https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-client-65-html5-functionality-support.html

• Fling page showing the latest development: https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client#changelog

• vSphere Client SDK Blog: https://blogs.vmware.com/code/html-client-sdk/



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https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2147929

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2017/03/first-vsphere-client-html5-update-vsphere-6-5-b.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-client-65-html5-functionality-support.html

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client#changelog

https://blogs.vmware.com/code/html-client-sdk/

Plugin Certification Program



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Plugin Certification Program

• Help ensure better stability and performance of the plugins

• Help improve plugins interoperability

• Help ensure overall better Web Client / vSphere Client (HTML5)

52



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Plugins: VMware Solution Exchange

53



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Plugins: VMware Compatibility Guide

CONFIDENTIAL 54



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vSphere Client future



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vSphere Client – Looking ahead

• Regular upgrades of vSphere Client will be provided – more features faster

• Quickly address your feedback

• Fling releases with newest code will continue alongside supported releases

• Flash based vSphere Web client: no new development

56

Nov 2016 - vSphere 6.5 GA

Mar 2017 - vSphere 6.5.0b

July 2017 - vSphere 6.5U1

Future



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What version of vSphere Client are you using?

57

A – Fling

B – 6.5 GA

C – 6.5.0b

D – 6.5U1

E – Not applicable, I’m rarely use vSphere Client even though I’m on 6.5

F – Not applicable, I don’t have 6.5 and I’m not using the Fling on 6.0




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Please rank these in terms of how frequently they happen to you in vSphere Client (4 separate questions)

58

A – I'm frustrated trying to find an action I’d like to perform on an object

B – I'm frustrated trying to find a setting I’d like to change on an object

C – I'm frustrated trying to find information about an object because I don’t know

which view it is in

D – I'm frustrated trying to navigate to the object I want




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How often do you find yourself switching from vSphere Client to the Flash client?

59

A – A few times per month or less

B – A few times per week

C – A few times per day

D – Multiple times per hour

E – Not applicable




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Please let us know what feature(s) you’re most frequently switching to the Flash based Web Client for (put na if you don’t use vSphere Client

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Features:




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If you’re interested in surveys/emails from us seeking input for building our roadmap, please submit your email address

61

Email address:




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Thank youAny questions?



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Documents

SER1411BE vSphere Clients Roadmap: HTML5 Client, or ... · Achieving Faster vSphere Client releases • vSphere major releases traditionally every 1.5-2 year cycles, and vSphere Client