SSH tunnel to multiple vSphere/ESXi hosts

An SSH tunnel to a single host is easy; reference: http://www.virtuallifestyle.nl/2010/03/tunneling-a-vsphere-client-connection-over-ssh/

However, if you want to open the vSphere client multiple times for simultaneous connections to multiple ESXi/vCenter hosts, then you have to get a little creative. Basically you follow the same instructions as above, except you don't need to edit the hosts file. Just use a single address in the loopback network (127.0.0.2 - 127.255.255.254 ) for each remote ESXi host.  e.g.:

ESXi host	Tunnel Source	Tunnel Destination
host1	127.0.0.2:443	esxhost1:443
host1	127.0.0.2:902	esxhost1:902
host1	127.0.0.2:903	esxhost1:903
host2	127.0.0.3:443	esxhost2:443
host2	127.0.0.3:902	esxhost2:902
host2	127.0.0.3:903	esxhost2:903

Then simply connect vSphere client to one of the loopback addresses you used.  In the example above, to connect to esxhost1, you connect vSphere Client to 127.0.0.2.  For esxhost2, 127.0.0.3.

You should be able to make up to ~16 million tunnels this way!

See this entry if you need to open a console on one of your guests

NOTE: When using an SSH tunnel, the vSphere Client will not show the "Hardware" tab for your hosts.