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Otto
Asked: 2009-06-11 10:24:41 +0800 CST

Can I connect via VNC to a Linux guest running on VMware ESXi?

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I can see the console via the VMware Infrastructure client.

I can start a VNC server on the server itself, but that leaves me without any X desktop magic.

I want to connect a VNC client to connect to the console, instead of starting up my Windows VM to run the VI client.

Is it possible to connect directly? My google fu is not helping me on this one.

Thanks.

ubuntu vnc vmware-esxi

4 Answers

  1. While I haven't tried this before, this article talks about enabling the VMware console to be connected to using a VNC client

    http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_using_vnc_and_vmware_server.htm

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  2. If I understand your question correctly, you can modify ~/.vnc/xstartup to give you all the "X desktop magic" from VNC.

    change the last line of xstartup from twm & to gnome-sesssion & or startkde &

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  3. Using the VMWare client does not require networking to be working on the server. So first I would verify that the server has an IP address and can ping something on the internet. (note - option 3 below does not require this)

    I'm a little bit vague on what you are trying to do - just connect to a console - or get an X desktop.

    1. If you are just connecting to a console, don't bother with VNC - just set up openssh on your server, and use PuTTY to connect from a windows box.

    2. If you are wanting to connect to an X Desktop, then VNC will do this for you - whether or not you have one running on the server's console

    3. If you are wanting to view the VMWare client console then you need to be VNC-ing to your VMWare host box, not the client. Again - X doesn't have to be running on the server console, but VNC will start it for its own session.

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  4. The Linux VNC servers that I've run across are set up so that they will only display the terminal of a logged in user. This is sort of like Windows' Remote Assistance.

    I've gotten better mileage using XMing

    If you're just using the console (not XWindows) PuTTY is your friend.

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