vmware documentation needed: VNC configurations between vCenter and ESXi

[Shawn Hartsock]

For VNC consoles to work with OpenStack, vCenter and participating ESXi hosts need to have special configurations made. These settings need to be changed ahead of using VNC with OpenStack - Horizon.

* http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1246

This guide should at least be linked to in the OpenStack documentation so administrators will be able to find a working procedure. In addition, we should document the necessary network topology showing that a network path must be available for VNC traffic to travel from OpenStack Horizon to the ESXi host hosting the VNC socket. The intermediary vCenter only acts as a hand-shake service and the Horizon VNC client/proxy must be able to talk directly to the ESXi host. In addition, instance moves (aka vMotion) can sever a connection if the instance is moved during a VNC connection. This should at least be documented (however it is an edge case as automated movement during a VNC session is unlikely).

Note: No traffic between the Client's Browser and the ESXi host is necessary since the Proxy and the VNC client will handle traffic.

[Andreas Jaeger (jaegerandi)]

Shawn, are you still working on this?

[Andy Dugas (adugas)]

Closing as fixed.

The requested information appears in the Icehouse documentation.

The documentation was modified and also includes a link to the referenced KBA. See http://docs.openstack.org/icehouse/config-reference/content/vmware.html under "Prerequisites and limitations."