ESXi Configurator Utility

ESXi Configurator Utility is out!!!!!

A friend and I got together and created a web GUI that is built over the RCLI perl scripts that VMware publishes to support ESXi.

I for one love the i version of ESX and have been working to certify it for production use since Update 2 was released. I also started working with the RCLI scripts. These scripts enable all (or most) of the functionality that the services console gives to the server versions of ESX.

But wiht the announcement of ESXi being free to all users I started to look at RCLI utility and comparing what could and could not be done with the Virtual Infrastructure Client (not VirtualCenter but just the client connecting directly to an ESXi host). What I discovered was a backup and restore feature and the update script to patch the ESXi hyper visor. Both features are in this first release of the Configurator.

The time bomb issue that VMware had a few months ago was the key to me wanting to create this GUI application. It turns out that if you are not managing ESXi hosts with VirtualCenter and using VMware's Update Manager to patch the hosts you can only update an ESXi host by using the VMware RCLI update script.

Like many others I very quicly figured out the syntax for using the RCLI update script and got past the time bomb update, this included update all the USB key installs I had running as well.

So I found a programmer and asked nicely (bothered the heck out of her really) untill she taught me enough about creating a windows web application that could do these few features. We worked togher (her doing all the really cool stuff while I concentrated on the easy stuff that she showed me.) It started as an idea just to enable me to use a GUI instead of the RCLI scripts from a command line, and also an opportunity to me to learn c# and windows application development. (Used Visual Studio Express to create this app with C# has the language)

Well after many hours and with the skills of a real coder we finally ready to share this application. I call it the ESXi Configurator Utility (I'm not creative either) and I'm hopping it will hlep all thoes that are using ESXi in a stand along fashion or for thoes that are not running VMware Update Manager in VirtulaCenter.

Please feel free to comment make suggestions...