Exploring management options for an ESXi server in a home/lab environment.
- It's so fucking rad that ESXi free doesn't provide a web interface. /sarcasm
- Having a dedicated Windows VM for ESXi management is suck.
- Running vSphere Client in Wine/Crossover requires hacks to install and doesn't work correctly.
- How much does it cost to get a license for a lab environment?
- Can we use the DCUI (Direct Console User Interface) without a license? (Answer: YES, via a directly console, over SSH, but we can only do very basic things)
- Can we use the CLI/SDK/API tools? (Answer: PARTIALLY, Without a license it's locked down to read-only)
- Can we SSH to the bare-metal host and use command line tools for manaagement? (Answer: YES, but we have to enable SSH)