ESXi 5.0, 5.1, 5.5 Cannot connect from VSphere client on XP

Description

Attempting to connect to a newly installed ESXi 5.1 or 5.5 (or later) server from a VSphere client  on Windows XP, produces an error, indicating the connection request is too short and did not complete.

Connections to ESXi 5.0 which previously worked and may start failing in a similar way, on all versions of Windows.  Web browser, on Windows, OSX and Linux, will also fail to connect to the management Web site. 

The failure is caused by VMWare uprating the SSL cipher strength, beyond what is supported by Windows XP.

Fix

To workaround the issue, a config.xml file must be edited on the ESXi host.

For ESXi 5.1 and 5.5 the location is

File:  /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/config.xml

For ESXi 5.0 the location is

File: /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml

By default ESXi does not install nano or any other screen based editor.  The quickest way to edit the file is to use the installed vi command but requires familiarity with Vi's arcane keyboard command strings.  

Tip.  To exit Vi use [esc]:q!

For those uncomfortable with Vi.

Enable ssh on the ESX host, from the consoles trouble shooting menu.

Use an SFTP client (Cyberduck, WinSCP) to connect to the ESXi host and navigate to the file

/etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/config.xml

Open the file in a text editor and locate the <vmacore> node

Edit the SSL sub-node as follows.  XML files are case sensitive.

  <vmacore>

  ...
     <ssl>

          <doVersionCheck> false </doVersionCheck>

          <useCompression>true</useCompression>

          <libraryPath>/lib/</libraryPath>

          <handshakeTimeoutMs>120000</handshakeTimeoutMs>

          <cipherList>ALL</cipherList>

     </ssl>

  ...
  </vmacore>

Save the file and restart the rhttpproxy service on the ESXi host

For ESXi 5.1 and 5.5

/etc/init.d/rhttpproxy restart

For ESXi5.0

/etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart