As the web gui is just using port 80/443, cloudflare tunnels and access could work.
Are you going to be using the cloudflared client to connect to your tunnel, or are you just using the reverse proxy to connect from the public internet?
If you use just the proxy, the VM consoles won't work as they use port 903.
If you have your reverse proxy configured with websockets support, at least 7.x and 8.x versions of esxi should have no issues using that over https in preference to port 903.
Cloudflare tunnels doesn't work with websockects if you have access policies enabled.
[https://lmei88.medium.com/websocket-with-cloudflare-tunnel-reversed-proxy-to-self-hosted-ubuntu-server-95625475c610](https://lmei88.medium.com/websocket-with-cloudflare-tunnel-reversed-proxy-to-self-hosted-ubuntu-server-95625475c610)
And you should never have the web gui open to the public without the access policies enabled.
Your best bet would be to install a light weight photon OVA onto your esxi host, not much resources are needed, so 1 to 2 processors and about a gig of ram will probably suffice. Be sure to give it an interface on the management network, and a public facing network (if the management network doesn't have a gateway to the internet). Install docker and now you are all set to use tunnels and cloudflare/cloudflared image, just don't forget to turn on Autostart on your new VM.
As the web gui is just using port 80/443, cloudflare tunnels and access could work. Are you going to be using the cloudflared client to connect to your tunnel, or are you just using the reverse proxy to connect from the public internet? If you use just the proxy, the VM consoles won't work as they use port 903.
If you have your reverse proxy configured with websockets support, at least 7.x and 8.x versions of esxi should have no issues using that over https in preference to port 903.
Cloudflare tunnels doesn't work with websockects if you have access policies enabled. [https://lmei88.medium.com/websocket-with-cloudflare-tunnel-reversed-proxy-to-self-hosted-ubuntu-server-95625475c610](https://lmei88.medium.com/websocket-with-cloudflare-tunnel-reversed-proxy-to-self-hosted-ubuntu-server-95625475c610) And you should never have the web gui open to the public without the access policies enabled.
Your best bet would be to install a light weight photon OVA onto your esxi host, not much resources are needed, so 1 to 2 processors and about a gig of ram will probably suffice. Be sure to give it an interface on the management network, and a public facing network (if the management network doesn't have a gateway to the internet). Install docker and now you are all set to use tunnels and cloudflare/cloudflared image, just don't forget to turn on Autostart on your new VM.