Alert: Firefox 30 is not a supported browser for vCloud 5.1.x

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Update (8/4/2014): I have created a tutorial on how to create a ThinApp package to help get around this, check it out!

If you suddenly start seeing something the following error in vCloud Director 5.1.x:

This is because your Firefox upgraded to Firefox 30 automatically, as it does. This error seems to be due to some sort of change that Mozilla added into Firefox 30, I haven’t tracked it down yet (if anyone has let me know!). Even force enabling the plugin won’t help, Firefox 30 looks to have gone to an whitelist only model, doing so will make this error go away but the console sessions never connect.

That being said, VMware has stated that Firefox 30 will not be a supported browser for vCloud 5.1.x (the VMRC plugin doesn’t actually function so it is not a question of only supportability). Unfortunately it is also not supported in IE 10, 11 or Chrome 35 so the only option is really Firefox 29 (or Firefox 3.6). The only solution is to upgrade to vCloud 5.5.x, which while true isn’t really a solution.

As a note, I have had success using ThinApp to isolate a Firefox 29.0.1 with the VMRC plugin, Flash and Java and Portable Firefox may be an option too. Either way, be sure to disable auto-update (Firefox Options -> Advanced -> Update) if you downgrade to Firefox 29.0.1. There are some tips here on how to do that, the big one being the ‘-no-remote’ option to allow the ThinApp Firefox to launch its own process.

Update: It seems that installing the Firebug plugin and enabling that will allow the console to connect in Firefox 30 after forcing the plugins to activate. While cumbersome, this is another workaround.

Update 2: (7/29/14): I have found another solution! It is possible to use the Portable Firefox ESR Version (Extended Support Release), this is a Firefox 24 package that will run in a sandbox. It will use the installed plugins on your system so if your Java version is also incompatible that won’t work. One thing to change, perform the following:

Locate FirefoxPortable.ini in your extracted ESR download (might be in Other/Source directory).
Copy to the root of Portable Firefox ESR install directory
Edit file and change the “AllowMultipleInstances” variable to true.
Save

This will allow the Portable Firefox and Installed Firefox to run at the same time.

Alert: Java JRE 7u51 breaks Everything

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Update (8/4/2014): I have created a tutorial on how to create a ThinApp package to help get around this, check it out!

This morning it came to my attention that my customers were no longer able to upload any media (OVFs or ISOs) to their vCloud catalogs. This seems to be due to the most recent Java JRE version released by Oracle. The behavior I experienced was that the applet would appear to load but when I would click on the browse button nothing would happen. This happens across all different browsers and browser versions. The reason for this seems to be a change in the requirements for certificates and applet signing in JRE 7uU51.

Luckily, there is a quick workaround for this:

Open Configure Java control widget, navigate to Security then Edit Site List.

Type the URL for your vCloud instance in the blank and Click Add to add (repeat for multiple URLs), click OK

Thats it! This really is a workaround, I am not sure what the final solution will be but this got my customers and I back into business for now. If anyone has more information, let me know!

Update: It seems that this update actually breaks everything from HP iLO to vCenter Orchestrator, I am still searching for a better workaround if anyone knows of one.

Update 2: There are reports of this breaking Cisco UCS, Dell iDRAC, vCloud VPN and EMC Unisphere as well. It might be safe to say that most Java based management tools are going to be effected. VMware has released a KB article about their parts of it, check it out here. One interesting thing in the KB is that the upload portion of this issue does not effect vCloud 5.5 as this uses the Client Integration Plugin.

Update 3: Setting the security level to “Medium” also seems to work for most things.

Workaround on BeyondVM

Alert: Firefox 30 is not a supported browser for vCloud 5.1.x

Alert: Java JRE 7u51 breaks Everything