When the 5.X vCenter webclient released you could navigate to a VM and click a link to generate a VM Console URL. It looks something like this:
https://vcenter.pcli.me:9443/vsphere-client/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=urn:vmomi:VirtualMachine:vm-VirtualMachine-vm-409:3a3sf62s-q41g-172d-aj91-a71251658v87
This 5.X console URL was made up of three data variables:
vcenter + VM MoRef + vCenter UUID — See below in the parentheses.
https://(your vcenter server):9443/vsphere-client/vmrc/vmrc.jsp?vm=urn:vmomi:VirtualMachine:vm-VirtualMachine-vm-( you vms MORef Number ):(vcenters UUID)
Now this URL will not work for vCenter 6.x!
If attempted, you will see this in your browser:
The formatting was changed to this:
https://vcenter.pcli.me:9443/vsphere-client/webconsole.html?vmId=vm-VirtualMachine-vm-409&vmName=vm01&serverGuid=3a3sf62s-q41g-172d-aj91-a71251658v87&host=vCenterPSC01.pcli.me:443&sessionTicket=cst-VCT
Lets break down this URL:
https://vcenter.pcli.me:9443 (— vcenter again with port)
/vsphere-client/webconsole.html?vmId=vm-VirtualMachine-vm- (— String changed from vmrc to webconsole…)
409 (— VM moRef ID)
&vmName=vm01 (— The Name of the VM you want the console of)
&serverGuid=3a3sf62s-q41g-172d-aj91-a71251658v87 (— vCenters UUID)
&host=vCenterPSC01.pcli.me:443 (— the FQDN of your vCenter Platform Service Controller)
&sessionTicket=cst-VCT (— and a final string)
This last string (&sessionTicket=cst-VCT) was something I had to play with.. Using just these characters allowed the browser to prompt for my username/password and then give me a VM console.
Here are the PowerCLI commands to find your VM MoRef ID and vCenter UUID.
— Launch a PowerCLI session and run these oneLiners
—- $global:DefaultVIServers.InstanceUUid = This will give you your vCenter UUID
— ((get-vm “vm01”).id).split(“-“)[2] = This will get your VM MoRef ID
—- You can use this one too if you like Views…. (get-view -viewtype virtualmachine -filter @{“name” = “vm01”}).moref.value
Here are the 5.X and 6.X VM consoles… if interested in the differences.
5.X
6.X