Chrome 42 breaks vSphere web client thanks to ye olde NPAPI

One of the most-derided features of vSphere was its web client. We say “was”, because VMware made a point of improving it in vSphere 6.0.

vAdmins are generally pretty pleased with those new arrangements, but now have cause to be a bit miffed if they use Google's Chrome browser because it breaks the vSphere Client Integration Plugin that is part of the web interface

The plugin makes it possible to access a virtual machine's console in the vSphere Web Client. But as VMware explains in its knowledge base, the Plugin comes in the NPAPI format that Google booted out of Chrome with 42, plus its heirs and successors.

Virtzilla's answer is to release new versions of the VMware remote console to help you do the tricks the plugin used to enable (it's here for Windows and MacOS, with a Linux version promised). There's also new features in the web client to help you handle this issue, detailed in the knowledge base link above.

Let's not read too much into this one, vPeeps, because VMware and Google are very close. The pair collaborate on VDI in Chromebooks, cloudy analytics and container orchestration. If anything Chrome killing off a management plugin puts VMware in a bad light for using crusty formats, rather than signalling any tension between the pair. ®