vSphere 6.0 Basics – Part 4 – Installing vCenter Server with Windows Server 2012 R2

This is part 4 of the vSphere 6.0 Basics, detailing the installation of vCenter Server on Windows Server 2012 R2.

This is a 6 part series, describing the installation basics of vSphere 6.0:

This post has been constructed using the vSphere 6.0 Release Candidate (RC – Build 2172336)

The vCenter Server installation process is now much simpler compared to previous versions:

Web Client, SSO, Inventory Service, Auto Deploy and ESXi Dump Collector are now rolled into the single, embedded Platform Services Controller (PSC) with vCenter Server.
Design decision – PSC and vCenter server need to decide if your deployment will be embedded or separate (this post assumes embedded).
Default database is now vPostgres for vCenter, VUM uses MS-SQL Server 2012 Express.

Prerequisites

Customised Windows Server 2012 R2 server Operating System (for vSphere 5.5, but applicable to vSphere 6.0 also)
Install this patch: support.microsoft.com/kb/2897602 (otherwise the installation will fail with the message “Error in appending hostname/ip <name> to Cert.”)
Ensure that the Windows Server VM has 8GB of RAM allocated.
Ensure that the Windows Server C Drive has 17GB of space free (the common application data directory requires 11GB if you are installing to a separate application drive).
Ensure that the System Name is a FQDN and that the Server IP Address is static (if you use DHCP, make sure the IP Address is reserved).
You have the vSphere Infrastructure Management Release Candidate (RC – Build 2172336) or the General Availability (GA – March 2015) ISO image.

Install the vCenter Server

Mount or extract the VIM 6.0 ISO image to the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 system.
Execute the “autorun.exe” file.
In the “VMware vCenter Installer” window, select the “vCenter Server for Windows” object under the “VMware vCenter Server” option. Press the “Install” button.
In the “VMware vCenter Server 6.0.0” window, press “Next”.
Accept the licence agreement and select “Next”.
Select the “Embedded Platform Services Controller” “Deployment Type” and press “Next”.
Verify the “System Name” is a valid FQDN and press “Next”.
In the “Single Sign-On Configuration” window, select “Create a new Single Sign-On domain” and enter the “Domain Name”, “Password” and “Site Name”. Then press “Next”.
In the “vCenter Service Account” window, select “Use Windows Local System Account” and press “Next”.
In the “Database Settings” window, select “Use an embedded database (vPostgres)” and press “Next”.
In the “Configure Ports” window, verify the default ports and press “Next”.
In the “Destination Folder” window, change the destination folder if necessary and select “Next”. vCenter Server can only be installed to a location where the directory names consist of alphanumeric characters and spaces. Make sure the volumes support short names, otherwise “spaces” in the folder names will not be supported.
In the “Ready to install” window, verify the settings and then press “Install”.
In the “Setup Completed” window, press the “Launch vSphere Web Client” button and then select “Finish”.
Open the Services application and verify that the VMware “VirtualCenter Server” service and associated other services are installed and running.
Enter the Administrator credentials defined earlier and press “Login”. Note that you may have changed the default “administrator@vsphere.local” to something different. If you want to use “Windows session authentication”, you must install the “Client Integration Plugin” (link at bottom left of screen).
The vSphere Web Client will open to the “Home” screen.