Today we are excited to announce the release of the vSphere HTML5 Web Client Fling. The decision to go with Flash was made years ago, before HTML5 and developer tools were ready. The situation has changed, and we’ve been working very hard on removing the dependency on Flash to improve performance, stability, and security.

The Web Client is a huge application with a lot of features,and making the switch to HTML5 will take some time. This first version of the Fling does not contain all the features of the existing Web Client. We focused on providing the most commonly used workflows/features (centering around VMs and Hosts) in this version.

This Fling is distributed as an appliance (OVA), so you can easily deploy it within your existing environments. This Fling has been designed to work with your existing vSphere 6.0 environments. You can find browser requirements, download, and installation instructions from our Fling website: https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client

Here are list of the most important features/workflows available:

– VM power operations (common cases)p>

– VM Edit Settings (simple CPU, Memory, Disk changes)

– VM Console

– VM and Host Summary pages

– VM Migration (only to a Host)

– Clone to Template/VM

– Create VM on a Host (limited)

– Additional monitoring views: Performance charts, Tasks, Events

– Global Views: Recent tasks, Alarms (view only)

– Feedback Tool (New feature to collect feedbacks from you)

– And many more.

We are explicitly seeking feedback on the Fling to help us in further development. We have also integrated a feedback tool into the web client. You can submit your feedback along with annotated screenshots using this feature. You can also provide feedback through the VMware community web site: https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vcenter

At this stage, we welcome feedback through all the channels (Feedback tool, Fling web site, VMware Community website etc) so that we can make the HTML5 Web Client better. You can also share your thoughts about the HTML5 Web Client on social media using #h5client.

We wanted to thank the entire vSphere Web Client team for bringing this HTML5 Web Client to the customers. We also wanted to thank all the customers who helped us in giving valuable feedback that resulted in the development of HTML5 Web Client.

We eagerly await your feedback to help direct our development and shape future versions of the Fling. If you would like to receive email updates and surveys from us regarding this fling, sign up here: http://goo.gl/forms/IqGJ5twYHf.

Vishwa Srikaanth & Dennis Lu

Product Managers, vSphere Web Client