vCenter Appliance 5.5 - HTML5 VM Console - Could not connect to hostname:7331

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 has a bug where (after a reboot) the vSphere Web Client works but the VM Console connection page returns a "could not connect" error message. The problem is that the VCSA is not setting one of its JRE environment variables during boot. Here's the fix for it:
1. ssh into the vCenter Appliance as root (turn on SSH in the VCSA admin console at https://hostname:5480 if it's not already on)

2. edit this file:

/usr/lib/vmware-vsphere-client/server/wrapper/conf/wrapper.conf

3. add this line anywhere under # Environment Variables:

set.default.VMWARE_JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre-vmware

4. restart the vSphere client service with this command:

/etc/init.d/vsphere-client restart

Now, wait a few minutes for vsphere-client to finish initializing (after the command prompt says that it has restarted you still have to wait for it to finish starting up).

That's it! Next time you restart your VCSA, the VM consoles in the vSphere Web Client will work without any intervention.


VMware KB article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2060604

Install Telnet on Windows Server 2012, really quickly

Run this in your command prompt:

pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient"

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771275(v=ws.10).aspx#bkmk_installcmd

CVP Call Studio 10.5 - RDP user workspaces

If you have CVP Call Studio on a Remote Desktop server where different users need to log in and have their own Call Studio workspaces, you can edit the C:\Cisco\CallStudio\startStudio.cmd file (just right-click > edit the desktop icon for Call Studio) to start Call Studio with a workspace in the user's folder:

start eclipse\eclipse.exe -data "%userprofile%\workspace" -vm eclipse\jre\bin\javaw.exe

CVP Call Studio 10.5 - Invalid Configuration Location

Cisco's CVP Call Studio 10.5 will complain about not being able to lock the configuration file if your user account doesn't have write privileges on the configuration folder. Here is a (poor) screenshot of the error:


To work around this, do as the message says and add this line to the end of your eclipse.ini file (located in C:\Cisco\CallStudio\eclipse\):

-Dosgi.locking=none

You'll need to have permission to edit that file, of course, so any user seeing the error message will likely not have that privilege.

CVP Call Studio 10.5 - Call Studio plugins not loading

I found out through trial and error that CVP Call Studio 10.5 must be installed with Windows UAC turned off. If you don't (at least, on Windows Server 2008 R2), Call Studio will open and only show the standard Eclipse features with no Call Studio projects or views available. This is due to it not loading the Audium plugins. The activation window will also not pop up at startup during the 30-day trial license that it comes with. Only uninstalling and reinstalling with UAC off will fix this issue.