ESXi Host Management - Alternative tool?

[ralexgolden]

Right now we are using the vSphere Client to manage each host. Basically I have to spend a lot of time opening up vSphere Client and typing the password for each host. I don't want to buy vCenter since it costs 3 grand and for each additional host I believe is another grand...

Are there any alternative tools that I can use that will do this same thing? Free, or less expensive?

[Troy_Clavell]

well vCenter would be the way to go.  How many ESXi Hosts are you talking about?  You could get a "monitoring station" with few monitors, then open connections to each ESXi host, therefore you only have to log in once.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you have 3 hosts you can use the Essentials bundle.  You could also configure AD integration to save some time at the login screen.

[bulletprooffool]

I'd strongly suggest that you learn to use PowerCli (if you don't use it already)

Using this, you can create connections to all three of your ESX hosts at once and issue pretty much any command that you would issue from within the GUI.

It may take a little getting used to - but what you learn will also stand you in good stead going forward, as the PowerCli skills are transferrable to normal PowerShell (well it is Powershell really . . .)

also, as stated above, AD authenticationon the newer versions of ESX will allow you to authenticate without manually typing a username / password each time you logon  . .