Compared to Other
VMware Consoles
The HTML Console
is not the only VMware virtual machine console.
The HTML Console SDK is a tool
that customers and developers can use to implement remote virtual machine
access in a Web application. It differs from earlier remote consoles, and ones
built into vSphere.
Compared to the VMRC
SDK Plug-in
With the release of vSphere
5.1 in 2012, the VMware Remote Console (VMRC) provided a way to insert a
virtual machine console into a Web application. On Windows, the VMRC SDK
contained an executable Win32 plug-in for Internet Explorer. On Linux, the SDK
contained a 32-bit or 64-bit NPAPI shared object for Mozilla Firefox and Google
Chrome. NPAPI was the Netscape plug-in API, now discontinued.
Due to the discontinuation of
NPAPI and decreased use of Internet Explorer, alternatives were needed. The
final VMRC release was for vSphere 6.0 in 2015.
Compared to vSphere
Web Client Consoles
In the vSphere Web Client
view of a virtual machine, Summary tab, click the small image of a console to
open a browser tab showing a full image of the console screen. If the console
is larger than your browser, scroll bars appear. This remote console
implementation is similar to WebMKS, but not identical.
In the vSphere Web Client
view of a virtual machine, click
Launch
Remote Console
to open a stand-alone application for Windows, Mac
OS X, or Linux. VMRC appears on upper left in the title bar. This application
is not the discontinued VMRC SDK, but is descended from the remote console on
VMware Workstation. The stand-alone VMRC offers features not available in the
browser console, such as power operations and device management.