Cannot Open Web Or Remote Console

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

Dear all,

I recently upgraded my lab server to ESXi 6.7. Everything worked fine until I tried to access my virtual machines using VMRC (Remote Console)

If I open VMRC trough Chrome or Firefox, It shows an authentication screen and it doesn't matter what I enter on it. never authenticates.

With browser console, it fails to connect to virtual machine console

And with new window browser console, it shows only the vmware logo page

I do not have this issue with Microsoft Edge or with Opera browsers.

Do you have any idea what it is happening?

Thank you for your attention.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

I'm still struggling with that issue. No idea what's going on. Any ideas?

[Devi94]

Please remove any proxy settings from your browser and check if your chrome version is compatible.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

I do not have any proxy server set. This is happening only in one computer, the second computer that I have is working fine with the same Chrome version.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

The situation just became weirder.

I added a line on my computer hosts file to resolve my ESXi IP address to a hotsname

If I access the ESXi server using the hostname, the VMRC can connect to all virtual machines.

If I access the ESXi server using the IP address, the VMRC cannot connect to any virtual machine.

[Devi94]

Please compare DNS settings and hosts file entries in both esxi.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

The DNS settings and hosts file are equal. However, I noticed something that may give some hints about the issue.

On the browsers that VMRC or web console are not working, the login name that shows on the web page is root@root.

On the browsers that works, the login name that shows is root@<IP_ADDRESS_ESXi>

Somehow Chrome and Firefox are replacing the ESXi server ip address by the login name. I guess the consoles launched by both browsers are trying to connect to a host called "root" (which of course does not exist) instead of the host's IP address.

[GregC631]

Had the same issues after upgrading my lab to ESXi 8. Using host name instead of IP corrected all the issues i was seeing with wonky webUI behavior.

 

Thanks for the tip!

[Devi94]

I suspect somewhere your dns entries went wrong. you are able to access it successfully with host name. Only IP is throwing issue. Please share below details.

i) nslookup for hostname from your client.

ii) hosts file entries for your client and esxi host.

iii) there is some security error in your URL, can you please click near https and tell me error message. I suspect certificate error or hostname issue.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

Hi Devi94​,

I still did not find what is wrong. I suspect is something with my corporate notebook, because I found that it is not happening with my personal notebook.

As I mentioned before, I do not have this issue in my corporate notebook with Opera and Microsoft Edge. This is happening with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

When I login with the problematic browsers, both shows in the upper right corner the username as "root@root"

With the working browsers, the username shows as "root@192.168.1.2"

Using network tools I found that all remote consoles, when I run them from problematic browsers, are trying to connect to "root" hostname. The working browsers connects to "192.168.1.2" IP address.

It looks like, somehow, Chrome and Firefox are replacing the IP address by root during authentication process, and in all remote console connections.

[Marcelo_Ferrei1]

I decided to completely remove Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and install them back. I also removed the self-signed certificates created by ESXi from my computer's certificate list. It fixed the issue.

[athwds]

Old thread, but problem still happened to me recently.  Couldn't open console from Chrome, but Firefox was fine.

Based on Marcelo Ferreira da Costa's response (and someone else's suggestion related to cookie settings), I got the idea to clear the site cookie from Chrome settings under "All cookies and site data".  Just find the site IP/name and delete the cookie.

After clearing the cookie, it worked!

So no need to reinstall for me.

[SupportAdmin242]

Hi.

I have resolved the issue. Please see below.

First please push the button on the right  ( see 1 picture).  The second step chooses "Change VM Console Preference". Next, you can choose to: Select your preferred VM console when clicking on the console icon on the top of the VM page.
  

[rdiezEDCOE]

For my solution, I had to enable popups in my web browser.