How to Use VMware Remote Console (VMRC) in Windows and Linux?
VMware is a globally known hypervisor provider, and its products are among the most preferred options in the market. The company offers ESXi and Workstation hypervisors while providing a management console where you can access and manage all your VMware products. This article particularly focuses on how to use the VMware Remote Console platform on Windows and Linux-based systems.
What Is VMware Console?
VMware typically provides its users with many ways to access and manage their VMs and guest operating systems deployed in virtual machines. vSphere is VMware’s server management environment, accessed through the client app (VMware Remote Console application) or web app (VMware Web Console).
For vSphere 4.x and older version users, the standalone VMware vSphere Client application has been the go-to management console to access and manage their ESXi hosts and VMs. But now, with vSphere 6.x and vSphere 7.0, VMware introduced new HTML5-based vSphere Client and VMware Host Client applications featuring a web interface.
Also, vSphere 6.x and 7.0 users have VMware Web Console as their default ESXi management environment, while a standalone VMware Remote Console app is available as an alternative you can install on your computer. So basically, VMware Console is the GUI platform offered by VMware for managing ESXi host resources and VMs – available as a web app or desktop client app.
What Is VMware Remote Console (VMRC)?
If you follow the explanation above, you will clearly understand what VMRC does. VMware Remote Console is the standalone application you have to install on your system (Windows, macOS, or Linux) to manage your vSphere virtual machines and the guest OSes running on the VMs.
The VMRC app stands as a direct alternative if you do not wish to use the VMware Web Console platform, which is web-based. Furthermore, if you’re on macOS, you can VMware Fusion Pro or VMware Workstation (Windows) as another alternative to the VMware Remote Console (VMRC). There are just many ways to access and manage your servers and VMs hosted in VMware hypervisor environments.
Features of VMRC
VMRC comes with a plethora of features that help in many regards. First off, it allows remote access to a guest OS and virtual machine on an ESXi server – allowing you to edit the VM settings and perform admin-level operations.
Using VMRC, you can access removable storage attached to your system on the virtual server you’re interacting with remotely, thanks to the USB pass-through feature. Other noteworthy features include:
- Proxy network configuration to connect ESXi hosts and VMs
- You can install VMware Tools
- Ability to adjust the screen resolution to that of the guest OS you’re connected to.
- Free to install and use across supported OSes (Windows, Linux, and macOS).
How To Install VMRC on Linux
You have to download the Linux installation file from the official webpage. You must be logged in on your VMware account to access this download page. Once you have downloaded the Linux file, follow the step-by-step guide below to install the app on your system.
Note: You may need to install libaio1 on Ubuntu to run VMRC, and this requires root privilege. Install libaio1 using: sudo apt-get install libaio1
Now, go to the directory you saved the VMRC Linux installer and edit the file permissions to allow executing the bundle file.
- sudo chmod +x ./VMware-Remote-Console-12.0.0-17287072.x86_64.bundle
VMRC is not on any Linux repository, so we have to install it using the installation bundle from VMware’s website.
Set the permissions to run the VMRC installer:
- sudo ./VMware-Remote-Console-12.0.0-17287072.x86_64.bundle
This will launch the GUI interface of VMware Remote Console Installer so you can follow the installation wizard prompts to complete the installation.
Launching VMware Remote Console on Linux
Having installed the app on your Linux system, you can launch it and start managing your VMware vSphere servers and guest OS VMs. You can find the app in the search panel when you click on the Start button in the Ubuntu GUI, but you can’t launch it directly from there. You can only launch VMRC on Linux by clicking the link in VMware vSphere Client or VMware Host Client.
- Using VMware Host Client, enter your ESXi server IP address and log in.
- On the “Navigator” pane, go to the Virtual Machines tab and select the VM you want to access.
- Click on the Monitor icon at the top bar to access VMware Console virtual machine management options.
- Select the “Launch remote console” option to open the interface of a guest OS in VMRC on the Linux system.
- On the pop-up dialogue box, click “Choose Application” and tick the checkbox to always allow your ESXi host to launch whatever app you are about to select for opening VMRC links.
- Since we’ve already installed VMRC, it will be selected by default.
- Click on Open Link.
- A certificate warning will pop up, click “Connect Anyway” and continue. Tick the checkbox to “Always trust this host with this certificate.”
- VMRC will launch on your Linux and you can perform any action it supports.
How To Install VMRC on Windows
Unlike the several pre-installation steps needed to run VMRC on Linux, getting it on a Windows system is a lot easier and follows the usual straightforward procedure of installing new software on your PC.
- Visit the VMRC official download page and download the Windows OS package. Extract the ZIP and launch the executable (xx.x.x-1x2x7x7x.exe) file.
- Follow the VMware Remote Console installation wizard prompts to complete the installation.
- Once installation is successful, click “Finish” and restart your system.
- When the system boots back, launch the VMware Remote Console app directly from wherever you saved its shortcut/app icon.
The VMware Remote Console application is easy to install on Windows PCs because the Windows OS has native support for its executable installer file unlike in Linux where the application’s installation file is not available in Linux repositories.
Using VMRC on Windows Systems
You need to first log into your vCenter Server / VMware vSphere Client, and from there, you can launch the VMRC application.
- From the vCenter Server or vSphere Client interface, go to Host and Clusters, then select the virtual machine to work on.
- Under the preview pane of the selected guest OS VM, click on “Launch Remote Console.” (Note: If you don’t have VMRC installed, this option will take you to the download page).
- Thick the check box in the pop-up prompt and click on “Choose Application.”
- If VMRC is not selected by default, click the “choose other application” link and select it.
- Now, click on “Open Link.”
The VMware Remote Control console should open now and you can access all of its features. Remember to set it as the default console to use in VMware vSphere Client; you can see this setting by clicking on your account name 🡺 my preferences 🡺 default console 🡺 VMware Remote Console (VMRC) 🡺 Save
What To Find on VMRC Interface
There are a few icons on the home screen and menu options that have sub-context menus. Here are the menu options meanings:
- Power: Change the VM power state
- Removable Devices: Connect or disconnect virtual devices
- Full Screen: Establishes full-screen mode.
- Preferences: Adjust any settings you feel like tweaking
- Help: Shows help information.
- Exit: Close the VMRC window
Manage: From here, you can install or update VMware Tools for the guest OS VM, access message logs, and edit the VM’s core settings.
Advanced VMRC Configuration Command and Options
If you have VMware Workstation installed on the same system where VMRC is installed, vSphere Client may always pick VMware Workstation as the default application for opening VMRC links. To fix this, make sure you’re logged into an admin account on the Windows PC, then run this PowerShell commands.
- Open PowerShell (Admin) and run this command:
- Get-Item “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\DefaultIcon”
- Get-Item “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\shell\open\command”
- Write these commands to tweak registry entries:
- Set-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\DefaultIcon -Value ‘”C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Remote Console\vmrc.exe”,0’
- Set-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\vmrc\shell\open\command -Value ‘”C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Remote Console\vmrc.exe” “%1″‘
How to Exit VMware Remote Console (VMRC)?
If you’re on Windows, simply click on the menu icon on the top bar and select “Exit” or click the “x” icon at the top-right corner of the app’s interface. For Linux users, follow these steps:
- Hold down the “Alt” key and press “F1” to launch a command-line utility
- Type “unsupported” and press “Enter”
- Enter your server’s root password and hit the “Enter” again
- Type “clear” into the window to erase all your data from the Console Mode session.
- Now, type “exit” to close.
- Hold down the “Alt” and “F2” keys to enter Standard Mode.
How to Uninstall VMware Remote Console
On Linux, launch the terminal CLI and run the following commands:
- List all installed VMware applications on your system: vmware-installer –l
- Uninstall VMRC: vmware-installer –uninstall-product vmware-vmrc
If the app won’t uninstall, go to /etc/vmware-installer/database file in DB Explorer for SQLite, find the component_dependencies table, and delete the “vmware-usbarbitrator>=17.1.1” row.
For Windows users, it’s pretty simple; open Control Panel, go to Programs and Features, find the VMware Remote Console app, and click “Uninstall.”
What More?
To be on the safe side, download DiskInternals VMFS Recovery and create a disk image of your hard drive before carrying out the advanced actions in this post. When you have a backup disk image file, if after installing and using the VMRC app you discover that some of your files are lost, you can easily recover them from the backup ISO image file.
FAQ
How do I exit VMware Web console?
Use the keyboard shortcut ALT + F4 to exit the full-screen mode of the console window.
How do I get out of remote console?
To log out, press Ctrl + Alt + End simultaneously. This keyboard combination is the most straightforward method to fully terminate a Remote Desktop session from the remote computer. Upon doing so, a specific screen will appear. From there, select "Sign out" to exit the remote desktop session.
How do I click out of VMware console?
For instance, if you need to free your mouse from a virtual machine (VM) and you don't have any additional tools installed, simply press Ctrl-Alt.
How do I exit the mouse in VMware remote console?
To regain control of the mouse and keyboard on your local machine, use Ctrl+Alt on Windows and Linux, or Ctrl+Command on macOS. Additionally, VMware Remote Console allows you to carry out specific configuration tasks for your virtual machine directly.