Blog by PQR

 

The vSphere client expects certain things to be available on the machine it runs on. On all released Windows versions, this is not an issue. But on Windows 7, something is missing that makes the client install correctly, but when it connects to an ESX host, fails with an obscure XML error message.

 

To get the vSphere  to run correctly, you need a SYSTEM.DLL from the dotNet 2.0 stack and have the vSphere client use that DLL instead of the native one. 

 

The DLL can be copied from a  NON-Windows 7 machine from

• C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll

and should be placed in

• C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

If you use 64-bit windows, you should put it in "C:\Program Files (x86)". If the lib directory doesn't exist, just create it.

Alternatively you can download the dll from http://www.techhead.co.uk/files/system.dll

 

To have the client use this DLL, edit the "VpxClient.exe.config" in the

• C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher

directory and add

• [runtime]
• [developmentMode developerInstallation="true"/]
• [/runtime]

somewhere in your configuration part (use triangular brackets in stead of the square ones.. it's an editor issue..).

One final thing to change is the environment variable DEVPATH. When this is set, the client will look in that path for specific DLLs. Open the 'My Computer' properties, go to 'Advanced System Settings', 'Advanced', 'Environment Variables' and add the DEVPATH variable to point to 

• C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

You have to re-login for this change to take effect but after that, the vSphere client will connect correctly to your ESX hosts.