vCenter Server Installation and Setup Update 1 VMware vSphere 8.0 vCenter Server 8.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright VMware, Inc. © 2018-2023 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.
Contents About vCenter Server Installation and Setup 5 1 Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup 6 Overview of the vSphere Installation and Setup Process vCenter Server Components and Services 8 Overview of the vCenter Server Appliance 11 Understanding vSphere Domains and Domain Names vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode 6 11 12 vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode for vCenter Server Appliance Joining a vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode Domain 12 13 2 Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance 15 System Require
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 File-Based Backup and Restore of vCenter Server 51 Considerations and Limitations for File-Based Backup and Restore Schedule a File-Based Backup 51 55 Manually Back up vCenter Server by Using the vCenter Server Management Interface Restore vCenter Server from a File-Based Backup Stage 1 - Deploy a New Appliance 57 58 60 Stage 2 - Transfer Data to the Newly Deployed Appliance 63 4 Image-Based Backup and Restore of a vCenter Server Environment 65 Consideration
About vCenter Server Installation and Setup ® vCenter Server Installation and Setup describes how to deploy the VMware vCenter Server appliance. At VMware, we value inclusion. To foster this principle within our customer, partner, and internal community, we create content using inclusive language. Intended Audience vCenter Server Installation and Setup is for anyone who must install and configure VMware ® vSphere .
Introduction to vSphere Installation and Setup 1 vSphere 8.0 provides various options for installation and setup. To ensure a successful vSphere deployment, you should understand the installation and setup options, and the sequence of tasks. The two core components of vSphere are ESXi and vCenter Server. ESXi is the virtualization platform on which you can create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 1-1. vSphere Installation and Setup Workflow Start the vSphere installation and setup Install ESXi on at least one host Set up ESXi Deploy vCenter Server Appliance Log in to the vSphere Client to create and organize your vCenter Server inventory End of the vSphere installation and setup 1 Read the vSphere release notes. 2 Install ESXi. Note See VMware ESXi Installation and Setup for detailed information about the ESXi installation process.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup You can deploy the vCenter Server appliance on an ESXi host or vCenter Server instance. You can deploy or install multiple vCenter Server instances connected in Enhanced Linked Mode configuration by registering them to a common Single Sign-On domain. a Review the topics in System Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance and verify that your system meets the hardware and software requirements for deploying the appliance. b Determine the deployment method to use.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup What Happened to the Platform Services Controller Beginning in vSphere 7.0, deploying a new vCenter Server or upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0 requires the use of the vCenter Server appliance, a preconfigured virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Server. The new vCenter Server contains all Platform Services Controller services, preserving the functionality and workflows, including authentication, certificate management, tags, and licensing.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup vCenter Single Sign-On is required with vCenter Server. vSphere License Service The vSphere License service provides common license inventory and management capabilities to all vCenter Server systems within the Single Sign-On domain. VMware Certificate Authority VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) provisions each ESXi host with a signed certificate that has VMCA as the root certificate authority, by default.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup appliances. The VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Extension is an optional service of the vCenter Server appliance. VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager The vCenter Lifecycle Manager automates the process of virtual machines and removing them from service at the appropriate time. vCenter Lifecycle Manger automatically places servers based on their location, organization, environment, service level, or performance levels.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup vCenter Single Sign-On Domain When you deploy a vCenter Server appliance, you are prompted to create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain or join an existing domain. The domain name is used by the VMware Directory Service (vmdir) for all Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) internal structuring. You can give your domain a unique name.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 1-2.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 Configure the JSON configuration template embedded_vCSA_replication_on_VC.json (or embedded_vCSA_replication_on_ESXi.json) for Appliance 2 as an instance on ESXi Host 1. Enter the hostname of the first embedded node in the replication_partner_hostname field in the sso section. 4 Deploy Appliance 2 by running the vcsa-cli-installer command using the embedded_vCSA_replication_on_VC.json (or embedded_vCSA_replication_on_ESXi.json) file. VMware, Inc.
Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance 2 You can deploy the vCenter Server appliance to manage your vSphere environment. You can deploy the vCenter Server appliance on an ESXi host 6.7 or later, or on an ESXi host or DRS cluster from the inventory of a vCenter Server instance 6.7 or later. For information about the software included in the vCenter Server appliance 8.0, see Overview of the vCenter Server Appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup User Name Description root Use this user name to log in to the appliance operating system and the vCenter Server Management Interface. You set the password while deploying the virtual appliance. administrator@your_domain_name Use this user name for vCenter Single Sign-On login. You set the password while creating the vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Before you deploy the appliance, synchronize the clocks of the target server and all vCenter Server instances on the vSphere network. Unsynchronized clocks might result in authentication problems and can cause the installation to fail or prevent the appliance services from starting. See Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Default Storage Size Large Storage Size X-Large Storage Size Medium environment (up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machine) 908 GB 2208 GB 4468 GB Large environment (up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines) 1358 GB 2258 GB 4518 GB X-Large environment (up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines) 2283 GB 2383 GB 4643 GB Note The storage requirements include the requirements for the vSphere Lifecycle Manager that runs as a service in the vCenter Serve
vCenter Server Installation and Setup VMware uses designated ports for communication. Additionally, the managed hosts monitor designated ports for data from vCenter Server. If a built-in firewall exists between any of these elements, the installer opens the ports during the installation or upgrade process. For custom firewalls, you must manually open the required ports.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup VMware has tested and supports the following guest operating systems and browser versions for the vSphere Client. Supported Guest Operating Systems n Windows 32-bit and 64-bit n Mac OS Supported Browser Versions n Google Chrome 89 or later n Mozilla Firefox 80 or later n Microsoft Edge 90 or later Note Later versions of these browsers are likely to work, but have not been tested.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-1. System Requirements for the GUI and CLI Installers Operating System Supported Versions Windows n Windows 10, 11 n Windows 2016 x64 bit n Windows 2019 x64 bit n Windows 2022 x64 bit n SUSE 15 4 GB RAM, 1 CPU having 2 cores with 2.3 GHz, 16 GB hard disk, 1 NIC n Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, 21.10 Note The CLI installer requires 64-bit OS. n macOS 10.15, 11, 12 8 GB RAM, 1 CPU having 4 cores with 2.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Log in to VMware Customer Connect. 2 Navigate to Products and Accounts > All Products. 3 Find VMware vSphere and click View Download Components. 4 Select a VMware vSphere version from the Select Version drop-down. 5 Select a version of VMware vCenter Server and click GO TO DOWNLOADS. 6 Download the vCenter Server appliance ISO image. 7 Confirm that the md5sum is correct by using an MD5 checksum tool.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Time inconsistencies in vSphere can cause the first boot of a component in your environment to fail at different services depending on where in the environment time is not accurate and when the time is synchronized. Problems most commonly occur when the target ESXi host for the destination vCenter Server is not synchronized with NTP or PTP.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-2. Client Clock Tolerance Deployment Scenario Clock Tolerance Linking one vCenter Server with another vCenter Server When deploying the second vCenter Server, the clock tolerance for the client and the first vCenter Server must not exceed 10 minutes. Installing a vCenter Server appliance using a container vCenter Server with a *._on_vc.json template. The maximum clock tolerance between the client and the container vCenter Server is 8 hours 20 minutes.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup If the deployment fails, delete the newly deployed vCenter Server appliance, and restore the vCenter Server nodes from their respective image-based backups. You must restore all the nodes in the environment from their image-based backups. Failing to do so can cause the replication partners to be out of synchronization with the restored node. n To learn more about creating vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode deployments, see vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 2-2. Stage 2 - Appliance Setup The second stage walks you through the setup wizard to configure the appliance time synchronization and vCenter Single Sign-On. This stage completes the initial setup and starts the services of the newly deployed appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-3. Required Information During Stage 1 of the GUI Deployment Process (continued) Required Information Default VM name for the appliance vCenter Server n Your Entry Must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/) n Must be no more than 80 characters in length Password for the root user of the appliance operating system n Must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-3. Required Information During Stage 1 of the GUI Deployment Process (continued) Required Information Default Name of the network to which to connect the appliance - Your Entry Note The installer displays a drop-down menu with networks that depend on the network settings of your target server.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-4. Required Information During Stage 2 of the GUI Deployment Process Required Information Default Time synchronization settings Synchronize time with NTP servers You can synchronize the time of the appliance either with the time of the ESXi host or with one or more NTP servers. Your Entry If you want to use more than one NTP servers, you must provide the IP addresses or FQDNs of the NTP servers as a comma-separated list.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 2-3. Deployment Workflow of a vCenter Server Appliance Start the deployment Stage 1 - Deploy the OVA file as a vCenter Server Appliance Stage 2 - Set up the newly deployed vCenter Server Appliance End of the deployment Prerequisites n See Prerequisites for Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance. n See Required Information for Deploying a vCenter Server Appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 Review the Introduction page to understand the deployment process and click Next. 4 Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next. 5 Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the vCenter Server appliance. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the appliance. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. 2 Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 9 Select the storage location for the vCenter Server appliance where all the virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks will be stored. Option Action Install on an existing datastore accessible from the target host Select a datastore from the list of compatible datastores.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 12 On the Ready to complete stage 1 page, review the deployment settings for the vCenter Server appliance and click Finish to start the OVA deployment process. 13 Wait for the OVA deployment to finish, and click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of the deployment process to set up and start the services of the newly deployed appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 Create a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain or join an existing domain. Option Description Create a new Single Sign-On domain Creates a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain. a Enter the domain name, for example vsphere.local. Note Ensure that the domain name does not contain any upper-case letters. b Set the password for the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator account. This is the password for the user administrator@your_domain_name.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup CLI Deployment of the vCenter Server Appliance You can use the CLI installer to perform a silent deployment of a vCenter Server appliance on an ESXi host or vCenter Server instance. The CLI deployment process includes downloading the vCenter Server installer on a network virtual machine or physical server from which you want to perform the deployment, preparing a JSON configuration file with the deployment information, and running the deployment command.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 4 Fill in the values for the required configuration parameters and, optionally, enter additional parameters and their values. For example, if you want to use an IPv4 DHCP assignment for the network of the appliance, in the network subsection of the template, change the value of the mode parameter to dhcp and remove the default configuration parameters that are for a static assignment.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-5. Deployment JSON Templates Included in the vCenter Server Installer Template Description embedded_vCSA_on_ESXi.json Contains the minimum configuration parameters required for the deployment of a vCenter Server appliance on an ESXi host. vCSA_with_cluster_on_ESXi.json Contains the minimum configuration parameters required for the deployment of a vCenter Server appliance with a single node vSAN and a vLCM managed cluster on an ESXi host.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-6. Sections and Subsections of Configuration Parameters in the JSON Deployment Files Section Subsecti on Description new_vcsa - describes the esxi Use only if you want to deploy the appliance directly on an ESXi host. appliance you want to deploy Contains the configuration parameters that describe the target ESXi host.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Important The string values, including the passwords, must contain only ASCII characters. Extended ASCII and non-ASCII characters are unsupported. To set a value that contains a backslash (\) or a quotation mark (") character, you must precede the character with the backslash (\) character. For example, "password":"my\"password" sets the password my"password. Similarly, "image":"G:\\vcsa\\VMware-vCenter-ServerAppliance-8.0.0.XXXX-YYYYYYY_OVF10.ova" sets the path G:\vcs
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-7. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, esxi Subsection for Deployments with a vSAN and a vLCM Managed Cluster (continued) Name Type Description single_tier Array A list of UUIDs or canonical names of disks you want to add to a vSAN storage pool. Required only if you set enable_vsan_esa to true. vsan_hcl_database_path String Local vSAN HCL database path.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-9. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, vc Subsection Name Type Description hostname string The IP address or FQDN of the target vCenter Server instance on which you want to deploy the appliance. username string vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name on the target vCenter Server instance, for example, administrator@vsphere.local.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-10. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, appliance Subsection Name Type Description thin_disk_mode Boolean Set to true to deploy the appliance with thin virtual disks. deployment_option string The size of the appliance. n Set to tiny if you want to deploy a vCenter Server appliance for up to 10 hosts and 100 virtual machines with the default storage size. Deploys an appliance with 2 CPUs, 12 GB of memory, and 315 GB of storage.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-10. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (continued) Name Type Description n Set to large-lstorage if you want to deploy a vCenter Server appliance for up to 1,000 hosts and 10,000 virtual machines with the large storage size. Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs, 37 GB of memory, and 1665 GB of storage.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-11. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, network Subsection (continued) Name Type Description ip string IP address for the appliance. Required only if you use static assignment, that is, if you set the mode parameter to static. You must set an IPv4 or IPv6 address that corresponds to the network IP version, that is, to the value of the ip.family parameter. An IPv4 address must comply with the RFC 790 guidelines.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-11. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, network Subsection (continued) Name Type Description ports string Optional. Port numbers that the vCenter Server appliance uses for direct HTTP connections. By default, port 80 redirects requests to HTTPS port 443. You can customize the vCenter Server HTTP and HTTPS ports.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 2-12. Configuration Parameters in the new_vcsa Section, os Subsection (continued) Name Type Description ssh_enable Boolean Set to true to enable SSH administrator login to the appliance. Note vCenter Server appliance high availability requires remote SSH access to the appliance. time_tools_sync Boolean Optional. Set to true to deploy the appliance with the VMware Tools time synchronization.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup You can add a space-separated list of arguments to the CLI deployment command. vcsa-deploy install path_to_the_json_file list_of_arguments Argument Description --accept-eula Accepts the end-user license agreement. Required for executing the deployment command. --acknowledge-ceip Confirms your acknowledgement of your VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) participation. Required if the ceip.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Exit Code Description 0 Command ran successfully 1 Runtime error 2 Validation error 3 Template error Deploy a vCenter Server Appliance by Using the CLI You can use the CLI installer to perform an unattended deployment of a vCenter Server appliance. You must run the CLI deployment from a Windows, Linux, or Mac machine that is in the network on which you want to deploy the appliance. Prerequisites n See Prerequisites for Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 Run the deployment command. vcsa-deploy install --accept-eula --acknowledge-ceip optional_arguments path_to_the_json_file Use optional_arguments to enter space-separated arguments to set additional execution parameters of the deployment command. For example, you can set the location of the log and other output files that the installer generates.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup n If you are running the deployment on Mac OS, navigate to the vcsa-cli-installer/mac directory. 4 (Optional) Run a pre-deployment check without deploying the appliance to verify that you prepared the deployment template correctly. For example: vcsa-deploy install --precheck-only MyWorkspace/BatchDeploy 5 Run the deployment command.
File-Based Backup and Restore of vCenter Server 3 vCenter Server supports a file-based backup and restore mechanism that helps you to recover your environment after failures. You can use the vCenter Server Interface to create a file-based backup of the vCenter Server. After you create the backup, you can restore it by using the GUI installer of the appliance.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Protocols The following considerations apply to file-based backup and restore protocols: n FTP and HTTP are not secure protocols n Backup servers must support minimum of 10 simultaneous connections for each vCenter Server n You must have write permissions for upload and read permissions for download n Only explicit mode is supported for FTPS n If you use HTTP or HTTPS, you must enable WebDAV on the backup Web server n You can use only FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTT
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Distributed Virtual Switch If you use a distributed virtual switch, you are advised to export separately the distributed virtual switch configuration before you restore to a backup. You can import the configuration after the restore. If you omit this consideration, you may lose the changes made to a distributed virtual switch after the backup. For detailed steps, see the VMware knowledge base article at http:// kb.vmware.com/kb/2034602.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup If you create a linked clone virtual machine after the backup and you restore vCenter Server from the old backup, then after the restore, the vCenter Server does not know about the new linked clone virtual machine until vCenter Server discovers the new linked clone virtual machine.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup n Changes, such as create, delete, or update, performed on storage policy components after backup are lost. n Default policy configuration changes for datastores performed after backup are lost. n Changes in the storage policy association of the virtual machine and its disks, and in their policy compliance might occur. Virtual Storage Area Network Restoring vCenter Server from a backup might cause inconsistencies in the vSAN.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 5 Enter the backup location details. Option Description Backup location Enter the backup location, including the protocol to use to connect to your backup server, the port, the server address, and backup folder to store the backup files. Use one of the following protocols: FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, NFS, or SMB. For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Manually Back up vCenter Server by Using the vCenter Server Management Interface You can use the vCenter Server Management Interface to back up the vCenter Server instance. You can select whether to include historical data, such as stats, events, and tasks, in the backup file. Note The backup operation for a vCenter High Availability cluster, backs up only the active node.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 8 (Optional) Select Stats, Events, and Tasks to back up additional historical data from the database. 9 (Optional) In the Description text box, enter a description of the backup. 10 Click Start to begin the backup process. Results The complete and in progress backups are listed under Activity.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 3-1. vCenter Server Restore Workflow Prerequisites n Verify that your system meets the minimum software and hardware requirements. See . VMware, Inc.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup n If the vCenter Server instance is part of a vCenter High Availability cluster, you must power off the active, passive, and witness nodes of the cluster before restoring the vCenter Server. Procedure 1 Stage 1 - Deploy a New Appliance In stage 1 of the restore process, you deploy the OVA file, which is included in the vCenter Server GUI installer.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Procedure 1 In the vCenter Server installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file. n For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file. n For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file. n For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file. 2 On the Home page, click Restore.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 7 Connect to the ESXi host or vCenter Server on which you want to deploy the vCenter Server appliance to use for the restore operation. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the appliance to use for the restore operation. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. 2 Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host. 3 Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 11 Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server appliance, and click Next. Important You must consider the storage size of the appliance that you are restoring. Storage Size Option Description for Tiny Deployment Size Description for Small Deployment Size Description for Medium Deployment Size Description for Large Deployment Size Description for XLarge Deployment Size Default Deploys an appliance with 579 GB of storage.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Review the introduction to stage 2 of the restore process and click Next. 2 Review the backup details and click Next. 3 If you are restoring a node with enhanced linked mode support for vCenter Server appliance, you are asked to provide the Single Sign-On credentials. Enter the Single Sign-On user name and password, then click Validate and Recover.
Image-Based Backup and Restore of a vCenter Server Environment 4 You can use vSphere APIs with a third-party product to back up and restore a virtual machine that contains vCenter Server. You can perform a full image backup of a virtual machine that contains vCenter Server. The virtual machine must use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) with correct DNS resolution, or the hostname must be configured to be an IP address.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup n Cluster-host membership n DRS configuration and rules Storage DRS If the configuration changes, the following might change after a restore.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup After you restore vCenter Server, the vCenter Server view of the virtual machines may be out of sync with the ESXi view of the virtual machines. This is also true if you performed the backup while there were in-flight operations on vCenter Server. If virtual machines disappear after you restore vCenter Server, you can refer to the following cases.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup vCenter High Availability Restoring vCenter Server requires vCenter HA to be reconfigured. Storage Policy Based Management Restoring vCenter Server from a backup can lead to the following inconsistencies related to storage policies, storage providers, and virtual machines. n Registered storage providers after backup are lost. n Unregistered storage providers after backup reappear and might show different provider status.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup You can restore a virtual machine that contains vCenter Server directly on the ESXi host that is running the third-party appliance when the vCenter Server service becomes unavailable or when you cannot access the third-party user interface by using the vSphere Client. Important Restoring virtual machines that have snapshots or that are configured with Fault Tolerance is unsupported. Figure 4-1. vCenter Server Restore Workflow VMware, Inc.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Restore a vCenter Server Instance You can use a third-party product to restore a vCenter Server environment. Important You can back up and restore only virtual machines that contain vCenter Server instances. You cannot back up and restore physical machines that are running vCenter Server by using a third-party product. Procedure 1 Restore the vCenter Server virtual machine onto the ESXi host using a third-party solution.
After You Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance 5 After you deploy the vCenter Server appliance, consider these post installation options before adding inventory for the vCenter Server to manage. If you plan to install Windows 11 as a guest operating system on a virtual machine, you must configure a key provider. Installing Windows 11 requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Open a Web browser and enter the URL for your vCenter Server instance: https:// vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn As an alternative, you can open a Web browser and enter the URL for the vSphere Client: https://vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn/ui. 2 If a warning message about a potential security risk appears, select to continue to the website. Browser Action Microsoft Edge a Click Details.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Procedure 1 Open a Web browser and type the URL for the vSphere Client. 2 At the bottom of the vSphere Client login page, click Download Enhanced Authentication Plug-in. 3 If the browser blocks the installation either by issuing certificate errors or by running a pop-up blocker, follow the Help instructions for your browser to resolve the problem. 4 Save the plug-in to your computer, and run the executable.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Repoint a Single vCenter Server Node to an Existing Domain without a Replication Partner You can repoint a single vCenter Server from one Single Sign-On domain to an existing Single Sign-On domain without a replication partner. Each Single Sign-On domain contains a single vCenter Server. See Figure 5-1.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 2 (Optional) Run the pre-check mode command. The pre-check mode fetches the tagging (tags and categories) and authorization (roles and privileges) data from the vCenter Server. Precheck does not migrate any data, but checks for conflicts between the source and destination vCenter Server.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 5-2. Repointing a vCenter Server from One Domain to an Existing Domain Before repointing Node A Node B Node C Node D vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Domain1.local Domain2.local After repointing Node A Node B Node C Node D vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Domain1.local Domain2.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 4 (Optional) Run the pre-check mode command. The pre-check mode fetches the tagging (tags and categories) and authorization (roles and privileges) data from the vCenter Server. Precheck does not migrate any data, but checks the conflicts between the source and destination vCenter Server.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Figure 5-3. Repointing a vCenter Server from One Domain to a New Domain Before repointing Node A Node B Node C vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Domain1.local After repointing Node A Node B Node C vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Domain1.local Domain2.local Represents vCenter Server nodes connected by linked mode Prerequisites n Repointing is only supported with vCenter Server 6.7 Update 1 and later.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 3 Power on Node C to begin the repointing process. 4 Run the execute command. In execute mode, the data generated during the pre-check mode is read and imported to the target node. Then, the vCenter Server is repointed to the target domain.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Argument Description -dvf, --dest-vc-fqdn The FQDN of the vCenter Server pointing to a destination vCenter Server. The vCenter Server is used to check for component data conflicts in the pre-check mode. If not provided, conflict checks are skipped and the default resolution (COPY) is applied for any conflicts found during the import process. Note This argument is optional only if the destination domain does not have a vCenter Server.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup These files contain the all the data (Authorization and Tagging) from the vCenter Server on which this command was run. If a secondary vCenter Server is provided using the -dvf or --dest-vc-fqdn option, any conflicts are also exported to the same folder: n Conflicts_Roles.json n Conflicts_TagCategories.json n Conflicts_Tags.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup To specify the resolution for handling conflicts, you can provide a default resolution option all conflicts in the "global": "resolution" = "MERGE|SKIP|COPY" section. If you do not provide a valid global resolution type for resolution or leave it unedited, the system uses COPY as the default resolution option.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 5-1. Conflict Types Conflict Properties used to compare Category Objects Role conflict n n Conflict Types name: Name of the RoleName conflict category. occurs while importing roles and a role with the same name exists in the target vCenter privilegeId: List of privileges for the role. Conflicting Properties Properties that can be conflicting for RoleName conflict Conflict Resolution Options n COPY.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 5-1. Conflict Types (continued) Conflict in a vCenter Server. Properties used to compare Category Objects n cardinality: Cardinality of Category, either Single or Multiple. n associableEntityTy pe: List of vCenter Server object that can be associated with a tag from this category. A value of Conflict Types conflict.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup Table 5-1. Conflict Types (continued) Conflict Properties used to compare Category Objects inside a category. Conflict Types Conflicting Properties Conflict Resolution Options name exists under the same category and in the target vCenter Server but with different properties. MoRef(Internal tag ID) of the newly created tag and update the tag association if necessary. Note The default resolution option to resolve CategoryName conflicts is COPY. n MERGE.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup License Keys in Use in Multiple Domains If after completing repointing, a license key is in use (that is, assigned to assets) in more than one domain, to remove the license key from all but one domain, first a different license key must be assigned to each asset in domains from which the license key will be removed.
Troubleshooting vCenter Server Installation or Deployment 6 The vCenter Server deployment troubleshooting topics provide solutions to problems that you might encounter during the vCenter Server appliance deployment process. This chapter includes the following topics: n Collecting Logs for Troubleshooting a vCenter Server Installation or Upgrade Collecting Logs for Troubleshooting a vCenter Server Installation or Upgrade You can collect installation or upgrade log files for vCenter Server.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup The files in the %TEMP% directory include vc-install.txt, vminst.log, pkgmgr.log, pkgmgr-comp-msi.log, and vim-vcs-msi.log. 2 Open the installation log files in a text editor for examination. Collect Deployment Log Files for the vCenter Server Appliance If the vCenter Server appliance deployment fails, you can retrieve the log files and examine them for the reason of the failure.
vCenter Server Installation and Setup 5 (Optional) To determine which firstboot script failed, examine the firstbootStatus.json file. If you ran the vc-support.sh script in the vCenter Server appliance Bash shell, to examine the firstbootStatus.json file, run cat /var/log/firstboot/firstbootStatus.json VMware, Inc.
