vSphere Web Client Export: Pulling Virtual Machine Information

Updated for 2026: the original Flash-based vSphere Web Client described below was deprecated back in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 and has been completely unavailable since vSphere 7.0 — every current vSphere release (8.x, 9.x, and VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x under Broadcom) uses the HTML5 vSphere Client instead. The steps below have been updated to match. If you need a full export of every VM’s details across your environment, the modern HTML5 vSphere Client has a built-in export feature that handles this without needing PowerCLI.

Steps (Current HTML5 vSphere Client)

1. Log in to the vSphere Client (typically at https://<vcenter-fqdn>/ui).
2. Click into Hosts and Clusters in the left-hand inventory tree.
3. Select the VMs tab in the middle panel to see the full VM list for the selected object.
4. Select the VMs you want to export (or select all), right-click, and choose Export OVF Template for a full per-VM export, or use the list’s built-in Export List icon (usually near the top-right of the VM table) for a quick CSV of the visible columns.
5. Choose which columns/fields you want included if using the list export, or configure the OVF export options if exporting full VM definitions.
6. Save the resulting file to your machine — you’ll then have a complete export of your selected VM fields ready for reporting, auditing, or capacity planning.

Generation time varies from near-instant to a few minutes depending on how many VMs you have and your vCenter server’s current load.

A Faster Option for Larger Environments

If you’re regularly pulling this kind of report rather than doing a one-off export, PowerCLI’s Get-VM | Export-Csv is worth setting up instead — it’s scriptable, can be scheduled, and lets you pull exactly the properties you want (CPU, memory, datastore, IP address, guest OS, and so on) in one pass rather than relying on the UI’s column selection each time.

Resources

• VMWare
• VMware Remote Console (VMRC) Silent Installation Guide (2026)
• How to Change the Hostname of a VMware ESXi Host (2026)
• Browse our Home Lab Essentials picks on Amazon