VMWare ESXi fun

I usually have “fun” it seems with technology and software. So remote management is a really convenient tool, but has its quirks as well. If you have all your servers on your LAN or routed network, all is nice. But once you have to tunnel connections through an SSH session problems arise. Port forwarding is a powerful tool, but tools not always play along nicely. VMWare vSphere Client is one such tool. I usually forward ports from my PC to some remote box via an SSH “jump box.” I SSH into a server which is on the LAN or routed network where the servers are and forward traffic from my PC (loopback adapter IP address) to the remote IP. As long as you have to use a browser, or a simple tool to access a service all is well, but VMWare vSphere Client launches an embedded console application to access the console and attach virtual media. This console application can’t connect unless I bind the forwarded port to all IPs of my PC. In PuTTY it’s a checkbox under SSH -> Tunnels called “Local ports accept connections from other hosts”. And to top it all off you have to remove the forwarding, click OK, then re-add the forwarding because PuTTY does not rebind the ports, not even the ones which were not set up yet. So port 902 for VMWare vSphere Client has to be forwarded like this, otherwise the console will not connect and you can’t attach ISO images and such.