VMWare: connect vSphere client to ESX over SSH tunnels

[^rooker]

This describes how you can connect to an ESX VMWare host remotely, using SSH-tunnels:

1) Required ports:

Add these ports as local forwards (in e.g. PuTTY):

• 443 (https)
• 902
• 903

If the SSH-tunnels are configured and work properly, you should now be able to open the ESX web-interface in your browser, under the following URL:

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https://localhost

If you don't have a vSphere Client already installed, you should see download links for it (or other clients, such as Linux commandline, etc) on that web page.


2) Add a local hostname entry:

If the web-interface of the ESX host loads correctly, you do have established the connection.
It is however necessary to add a local hostname to use - because for name-resolution reasons, "localhost" can not be used for this.

Edit WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and add an entry for "127.0.0.1".
The name you assign doesn't matter.

For example:

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127.0.0.1    target-esx

3) Connect using vSphere client:

Now, enter the hostname you've put into the drivers\etc\hosts file as hostname to connect to.
Of course, also proper credentials


That's it!


Thanks go to the great and simple HowTo "VMWare vSphere Remote Access via SSH Tunnel" (by Anthony Eden).
I just always like to have a copy of the information here, in case the source should disappear for some reason.