In vSphere 6.5, you can prevent plug-ins that are not compatible with the current version of the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client from deploying in your environment.

You can use the compatibility matrix feature in the following use cases:

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You can mark as incompatible plug-ins that have compatibility issues with the current version of the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. For example, the plugin-package.xml manifest file might contain incorrect definitions of the plug-in dependencies. For more information, see <dependencies> Element.

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You can mark as compatible in your environment, plug-ins that are by default considered as incompatible for the current version of the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

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You can blacklist several plug-ins that you suspect are causing issues in your environment and in this way you can narrow down the list of problematic plug-ins.

To disable and enable plug-ins from deploying on the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client, you must edit the compatibility-matrix.xml configuration file. You can locate the file in one of the following directories:

Location of the compatibility-matrix.xml Configuration File

vSphere Environment Setup

vSphere Client

vSphere Web Client

vCenter Server for Windows

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-ui

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client

vCenter Server Appliance

/etc/vmware/vsphere-ui

/etc/vmware/vsphere-client

You can define your compatibility rules by inserting a <PluginPackage> element inside the <pluginsCompatibility> element for each plug-in. The <PluginPackage> element contains the following attributes:

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id - The ID of the plug-in that you want to prevent from deploying or explicitly declare as compatible with current version of the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

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version - The version of the plug-in that you want to prevent from loading.

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status - The rule that you want to be applied for the plug-in. The value of this attribute can be either incompatible or compatible.

Example: Plug-Ins Compatibility Matrix

The following example of the compatibility-matrix.xml file content demonstrates how you can control the plug-ins that are deployed on your vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client. 

<!--
    This file lets you define a WHITE LIST and a BLACK LIST of plugins to control your own setup.
    It overrides the internal black and white lists that are hard-coded in this release.
-->
<Matrix>
    <pluginsCompatibility>
        <!--
            WHITE LIST:
            Add this to enable all plugins whose plugin-package id is com.acme.example.myplugin:
                <PluginPackage id="com.acme.myplugin" status="compatible"/>
            Or this to specify all versions greater or equal to 2.1.0:
                <PluginPackage id="com.acme.myplugin" version=[2.1.0,] status="compatible"/>
            Or this to enable all plugins starting with com.acme:
                <PluginPackage id="com.acme.*" status="compatible"/>
        -->

        <!--
            BLACK LIST:
            Add this to disable a plugin whose plugin-package id is com.acme.example.myplugin:
                <PluginPackage id="com.acme.myplugin" status="incompatible"/>
         -->

    </pluginsCompatibility>
</Matrix>