In this eleventh part of the series, we will be deploying the VMware vCenter Server appliance. vCenter Server is a service that acts as a central administrator for ESXi hosts connected in a network. vCenter Server lets you pool and manage the resources of multiple hosts. It allows the use of advanced vSphere features such as vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), vSphere High Availability (HA), vSphere vMotion, and vSphere Storage vMotion.
The vCenter Server Appliance is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Server and the vCenter Server components.
In this article we will deploy VMware vCenter Server Appliance using the embedded Platform Services Controller.
In the seventh part of the series Installing VMware ESXi 8, we had created the VMware ESXi 8 virtual machines with default 4 GB of RAM. For deploying vCenter server we would need to increase the RAM assigned to the ESXi servers to at least 12 GB. Shutdown both the ESXi server virtual machines, increase the RAM to 12 GB or more and power them back on.
Download the VMware vCenter Server 8 Appliance ISO from the Broadcom website and then extract the contents locally. Navigate to the directory \vcsa-ui-installer\win32 as shown in the image below and run / double click the installer.exe file.
This will launch the vCenter Server Appliance Installer. The vCenter Server Appliance Installer allows us to;
- Install a new vCenter Server Appliance
- Upgrade an existing vCenter Server Appliance
- Migrate from an existing vCenter Server
- Restore a vCenter Server Appliance from backup
Click on Install to start installation of a new vCenter Server Appliance.
On the Introduction page click Next to continue.
Accept the License Agreement and click Next.
Enter the ESXi server hostname / IP address (ex. 10.100.1.23) on which the vCenter Server appliance will be deployed. Leave the HTTPS port to default 443. Enter the root credentials and click Next.
Click on Yes to accept the ESXi host SSL certificate warning.
Enter the name for the vCenter Server appliance virtual machine (for example vcenter01) and the set the complex password for the root account. Click Next to continue.
Leave the defaults for Deployment size and Storage size to default values. Click Next.
Select the datastore on which to host the virtual machine files, select the check box to Enable Thin Disk Mode and click Next.
Configure the network settings as shown in the screenshot below and click Next. Make sure you have created the DNS record for the vCenter Server hostname and the forward and reverse DNS resolution is working for it.
Review the settings and click on Finish to start the vCenter Server appliance installation.
Monitor the progress of the vCenter Server appliance deployment. The process may take 10 to 15 minutes or even longer, so grab a cup of coffee if you want to.
Stage 1 of deploying the vCenter Server appliance is complete now. Next in Stage 2 we will be setting up the vCenter Server. To proceed to Stage 2 click on Continue.
For Stage 2, on the Introduction page click Next.
On the Appliance Configuration page, select Synchronise time with NTP servers and enter the IP address of the NTP servers. I have entered the IP address of the master domain controller which I am using as a time source / NTP server. If you want to enable SSH access to the appliance, select Enabled from the drop down menu. I am leaving it disabled. It can be enabled from the web console of the vCenter appliance later. If you want to configure vCenter High Availability (HA for vCenter Server), you will need to enable SSH. Click Next to continue.
Under SSO configuration, enter the SSO domain name and SSO Admin user credentials. For simplicity sake I have kept default values for the SSO domain name. You can change it to your liking. Click Next to proceed to the next step.
Uncheck the box to opt out of the VMware’s Customer Experience Improvement Program and click Next.
On the Ready to complete page, review the settings and click on Finish.
You will see a warning that you will not be able to pause or stop the install from this point onward. Click on OK to accept the warning and continue.
The appliance setup will begin. Monitor the progress on this window, as the services are configured and started. Again the process may take some time to complete, so make sure you grab another cup of coffee.
Once the vCenter Server Appliance setup is complete you will see the below screen. Make a note of the URL for the Appliance Getting Started Page. You can click on the link to access it right away or click on Close to exit the installer.
Enter the URL for the vCenter Server in web browser (https://vcenter01.virtshinobi.local/ui) and enter the Single Sign On Administrator account credentials to login to the vCenter Server.
The vCenter Server appliance setup is complete now and you can continue adding ESXi servers to the vCenter Server and configure clusters.
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