There was a question the other day about managing ESXi Embedded Host Client (EHC) settings which you can find by click on the logged-in username and navigating to the "Settings" section as shown in the screenshot below. Customers can manage things like the default VM Console used whether that is the HTML5 VMRC or the Standalone VMRC to auto-refresh and even sharing usage information to help improve the product back to VMware.
In addition to configuring the EHC settings within UI, you can also manage them via automation using the vSphere API and any one of your favorite vSphere SDK/CLIs. The EHC settings are exposed as a set of ESXi Advanced Settings as shown in the screenshot below. These settings are applied on a per-ESXi basis and NOT on a per-user basis.
Below is a table that summarizes the 7 different EHC settings which you can programmatically query to retrieve their current value, default value and whether they have been overridden simliar to what the UI provides today.
| Key | Description | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
| UserVars.HostClientCEIPOptIn | Whether or not to opt-in for CEIP in Host Client: 0 for ask 1 for yes 2 for no | 0 |
| UserVars.HostClientDefaultConsole | Default console type in Host Client | webmks |
| UserVars.HostClientEnableMOTDNotification | Whether or not to enable MOTD notification on login for Host Client | 1 |
| UserVars.HostClientEnableVisualEffects | Whether or not to enable visual effects for Host Client | 1 |
| UserVars.HostClientSessionTimeout | Default timeout for Host Client sessions in seconds | 900 |
| UserVars.HostClientShowOnlyRecentObjects | Whether or not to show only recent objects in Host Client | 1 |
| UserVars.HostClientWelcomeMessage | Welcome message displayed on login in Host Client | Welcome to {{hostname}} |
Note: The language settings is based on your browser settings which you can overridden, but it looks like we may not have exposed that as a configurable setting via automation.
Thanks for the comment!