vSphere 6.7 basic

VSPHERE 6.7 BASICS – PART 2 – VCENTER SERVER APPLIANCE INSTALL

03/17/2019

 This is part 2 of the vSphere 6.7 Basics, detailing the installation and initial configuration of the vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 using the Installer UI from Windows Server.

This is a 4 part series, describing the installation basics of vSphere 6.7:

1. vSphere 6.7 Basics – Part 1 – ESXi Install
2. vSphere 6.7 Basics – Part 2 – vCenter Server Appliance Install
3. vSphere 6.7 Basics – Part 3 – Upgrade vCSA 6.5 to vCSA 6.7
4. vSphere 6.7 Basics – Part 4 – Build a vCenter HA cluster

This post has been constructed using the vCenter Server 6.7.0 U1 (Build 10244745) release.

If you have used vCSA in vSphere 6.0, the deploy process has now been broken into 2 stages (1. Install, 2. Setup) and you no longer need the VMware Client Integration Plug-in. This also includes the ability to deploy to hosts that will not be reachable from the vCenter Server Appliance (eg. vCSA in Management cluster that connects to Resource hosts) and you have the ability to correct an error via Retry in Stage 2 where the appliance is not deleted if the setup fails. You can also use the UI or Shell methods to deploy vCSA from Windows, macOS and Linux Operating Systems. This post uses the Windows UI method.

The vSphere Client (HTML5) is now fully functional, there is no need to use the vSphere Web Client (FLEX) anymore.

Prerequisites

• You have the vCSA 6.7.0 U1 ISO image.
• You have a Windows 10/Windows Server 2016 instance that can be used to remotely install the vCenter Server Appliance.
• You have an ESXi host that has enough resources to host the vCenter Server Appliance.
• You have an Ephemeral Portgroup (with vDS – vSS does not support this) configured on the destination ESXi host for the vCenter Server Appliance to connect to.
• Functioning NTP and DNS servers with populated FQDN for the target vCSA.

Deploy vCSA to a remote ESXi host (Stage 1)

1.  Access the Console of the Windows instance and browse to the mounted ISO image.
2. Browse to the “vcsa-ui-installer/win32” path.
3. Double click on the “installer.exe” file.
4. On the vCenter Server Appliance Installer page, press the “Install” button.
5. In the “Introduction” window, press “Next”.
6. In the “End user license agreement” window, accept the EULA and press “Next”.
7. In the “Select deployment type” window, select “Embedded Platform Services Controller” and press “Next”.
8. In the “Appliance deployment target” window, enter the FQDN or IP Address of the ESXi host or vCenter Server, the HTTPS port, the User credentials and press “Next”.
9. Press “Yes” to the Certificate Warning.
10. In the “Set up appliance VM” window, enter the VM name of the vCenter Server Appliance, set the OS root credentials and press “Next”.
11. In the “Select deployment size” window, select “Tiny, Small, Medium, Large or X-Large”, the Storage size (Default, Large or X-Large) and press “Next”.
12. In the “Select datastore” window, select the target datastore, Enable Thin Disk Mode and press “Next”.
13. In the “Configure network settings” window, select the Network (vDS Portgroup must be ephemeral or vSS Portgroup), IPv4/IPv6, IP assignment, enter the FQDN, IP address, Subnet mask, default gateway, DNS servers, HTTP/HTTPS port numbers and press “Next”.
14. In the “Ready to complete stage 1” window, review the settings and press “Finish”.
15. The process of deploying the vCenter Server Appliance to the remote ESXi host or vCenter Server will begin.  Be patient, this takes 30 minutes or more.
16. In the last section below, you can use the Host Client to monitor the install progress and assist in resolving any issues you may have.
17. When the message “Deployment complete” appears, record the vCSA hyperlink and then press “Close” or “Continue” (if the Windows instance can connect to the vCSA instance).
18. You can now proceed to Stage CONTINUED.....