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Since VMware ESXi 6.5, the VMware server can be accessed with a web browser, this is the prefered access method. VMware bSphere Client should not be used anymore.

VMware vSphere Client can only run on Microsoft Windows.

If your laptop only has Linux, you must install a virtual Microsoft Windows environment to run VMware vSphere Client.

Creating a VirtualBox environment

You can create a virtual machine and install Windows and VMware vSphere Client on it, but to make the process easier I have prepared an appliance for VirtualBox with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, SP1 and all the available patches.

On the applicance I have installed VMware vSphere Client, as well a puTTY and ImgBurn. By default this appliance uses 2 CPU and 1.5 GB memory, it has 30 GB disk.

The steps below explain how to install that applicance.

1. You must start by installing VirtualBox. 
Depending on your flavor of Linux, you will use a graphical tool or a command line like apt-get install virtualbox
Copy the applicance from \\banyan\application\WINAPPS\VMware\VMware/W7-VMwareClient.ova or from scp://banyan.cs.ait.ac.th//home/pc-application/WINAPPS/VMware/W7-VMwareClient.ova
The file is almost 11  GB.
2. Launch VirtualBox and import the applicance from the file menu. 
3. Check the box to reinitialize the MAC address of all network cards. 
This will avoid conflict if other students install the same applicance. 
This is the only configuration setting you need to change.
Click on import, the process may take several minutes.
4. Launch your new Windows 7 virtual machine.
You may get an error about the network insterface eth1: the applicance has been created using eth1, but your network card may have another name. 
If you have no error, you can skip the next point.
5. Open the settings menu and go to the network configuration.
The interface name should change automatically to match the name used by your Linux intallation. It's important that the network card is attached to a bridged adapter, do not modify that parameter.
You may want to change the memory size and number of CPU used by your virtual machine. Do not change the size of the disk. 
6. Now your new Windows 7 virtual machine starts with no error. 
After a short while it displays a black screen, don't panic! It's a new installation of Windows 7, it has to initialize some settings. 
At some stage, the virtual machine will reboot.
7. It will also prompt you to enter a user name and a computer name.
Choose the computer name wisely to avoid possible conflicts with the name of other computers. 
You can enter a password for that account you just created. 
Finally you are presented with the login page.
Consider deleting the file W7-VMwareClient.ova to save 11 GB on your disk.

And work normally.

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