That… could be a problem…

vCMA – Access vSphere From a Mobile Device

Have you ever wanted to control your vSphere environment from your mobile device?

With the vCMA appliance, now you can. Best of all, it's free. The appliance is free, the device software is free.

Start off by downloading and extracting the OVF of the appliance from VMware's Lab website: http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcma

Login to your vSphere environment, go to "File", then "Deploy OVF Template", click on the browse button and point it at the newly downloaded and extracted OVF file

Verify the details on the appliance and accept the License Agreement:

Name the appliance and assign it a location:

Assign a datastore and a provisioned format

Assign a Port Group for the networking

Verify all the configured information, click "Finish", and let the appliance be deployed

Once deployed, it will look similar to the image below, then power the system on.

Once powered on, it will attempt to grab an IP from DHCP and then arrive at this screen:

If you need to configure the network (as I do), drop down to "Configure Network" and follow the steps:

The appliance should be all set up. Now head out to either the iTunes or Android Marketplace, search for the "VMware vSphere Client". Download and install the app, and launch it.

I use my iPad most often, so I have the VMware vSphere Client installed on there. This is the login screen:

If this happens to be the first time you're using the app, click on the "Settings" button in the top left corner and then enter the vCMA Server's IP Address

Click "Sign-In" and it will greet you with this screen showing a summary of your hosts

Click on a host and you will be shown a summary page along with the current VMs residing on that host

Along the bottom, there are three buttons. First one is Information, second one is Performance, and third is Tools. Information is the summary, Performance shows the performance graphs, and Tools allows you to do pings and trace routes. Examples:

Going back to the Information page, click on a VM and you will receive the same three buttons for Information, Performance, and Tools.

Overall, it's very useful and quite nice to look at as well. This is definitely a must-have app for the traveling admin!