vSphere Client cannot be installed on a Domain Controller

KB ID 0000968

Problem

I tried to install the VI client on my test network and this happened;

Install vSphere client on DC

vSphere Client requires Windows XP SP2 or later. vSphere Client cannot be installed on a Domain Controller.

Solution

Well I’m not over the moon about that? Ive only got one permanent VM and it’s a DC? Who came up with this? What about sites who have a single DC on an ESX box? What are they going to do!

Turns out its quite easy to bypass, install the VI client from command line with a switch on the end, like so;

{Path}VMware-viclient-5.5.exe /VSKIP_OS_CHECKS=”1″

Install vSphere client on DC

The install will now complete without error. I thought that it might be a cunning ploy to get me to use the new web client instead, so out of interest I tried that, and got the following error;

Install vSphere client on DC

vSphere Web Client requires Windows Server 2008 or later. vSphere Web Client cannot be installed on a Domain Controller.

Fair enough! So I tried the same switch on that, and guess what? That works as well.

{Path}VMware-WebClient.exe /VSKIP_OS_CHECKS=”1″

Install vSphere Web Client on DC

Other Options

You can also use the ‘Thin App’ version of the VI client, (even if you don’t have ThinApp) you can download it here.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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Author: Migrated

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