Installing the VMware vSphere 5.1 Web Client
With the recent release of vSphere 5.1, you probably noticed that there is a new Web Client which you can now use to manage your vSphere installations and environments.
As someone who started in VMware back in 2006 and has spent many hours playing around with our ESX and vCenter Server products, I can honestly say that I love this new Web Client. I personally find that it is faster and easier to use than the older traditional fat client. Of course you are probably going to put that last comment down to an obvious bias that I naturally will have due to being an employee of VMware but I really do mean the comment…no room for bias here right? 
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This video discusses and demonstrates installing the vSphere 5.1 Web Client.
The vSphere Web Client runs in your browser and allows you connect to a vCenter Server system to manage your vSphere environment.
Before installing or upgrading the vSphere Web Client, ensure that:
- The vCenter Single Sign On is installed and the Inventory Service and vCenter Server are upgraded or installed with version 5.1.
- Your system meets the software requirements for the vSphere Web Client. For more information, see Minimum requirements for installing the vSphere and vSphere Web 5.x Client (2005083).
- The vSphere Web Client and vCenter Server are registered to the same vCenter Single Sign On server. This ensures that the vSphere Web Client can access the vCenter Server inventory.
- All browsers are closed.
- You log in as a member of the Administrators group on the host machine, with a user name that does not contain any non-ASCII characters.