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Back to Basics: Deploying the vCenter Server appliance

Duncan Epping · Sep 11, 2012 ·

I am going to do a couple of blogposts with “basic” workflows using the Web Client. Let me know if you find this useful or not… I will start with deploying the vCenter Server appliance and will assume you all know how to install ESXi. I prefer using the vCenter Server appliance in my lab as I can deploy it in minutes without the need to pre-install an OS etc.

The following steps outline the import process of the vCenter Server appliance.

  • Open the vSphere Client
  • Click “File – Deploy OVF Template”
  • Browse for the OVA file
  • Provide a name for the to be imported virtual machine, in our case “vCenter-01”
  • Select a datastore where this virtual machine should be stored
  • Use the default Disk Format
  • Provide the networking details like IP address, DNS, netmask etc.
  • Finish the wizard

During the reinstallation of my lab environment I ran in to this issue a couple of times. In my environment when I deploy the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (VCVA) I always got the following error on the remote console:

No Networking Detected

This seems to happen when I point my vSphere Client directly to a host and import the OVA. When you point your vSphere Client directly at a host you do not have the option to fill out the networking details in the OVF wizard. (At least I don’t…) When I point my vSphere Client to a vCenter Server and import the OVA I get the option to fill out the networking details.

no networking detected vcenter server

You can configure networking fairly simple. Just login to the console and type the following:

/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

Make sure to fill out the following sections:

2) Default Gateway
3) Hostname
4) DNS
6) IP Address Allocation for eth0

After this has been done type 1 to exit the configuration tool. Now the VCVA should be configured. In some cases I noticed that the “default gateway” setting did not stick. I would suggest validating this on the network tab of your management console, which can be found here: https://<IP address or DNS name of your vCenter instance>:5480.

Now that you have successfully deployed the vCenter Server appliance you can start exploring the new vCenter Web Client: https://<IP address or DNS name of your vCenter instance>:9443/vsphere-client/

Related

Server, Various appliance, vcenter, vcenter virtual appliance, vcva

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Raymond says

    11 September, 2012 at 12:01

    support this approach. let everyone join vmware

  2. Gerry Paradis says

    11 September, 2012 at 13:13

    With the vCenter Applicance 5.1, are the limitations the same as vCenter Appliance 5.0??

  3. tom says

    11 September, 2012 at 14:50

    Does anyone know if they fixed the embedded database (SQL) logging issue in vCenter Server 5.1??
    Can one set up vCenter Server 5.1 and manage 5.0 hosts/VMs with it??
    Thank you, Tom

  4. karlochacon says

    11 September, 2012 at 18:40

    almost sure limitations are the same 5 hosts – 50 VMs and the DB used is vFabric Postgres

  5. Russ says

    11 September, 2012 at 21:23

    Tom,

    You can use vCenter 5.1 with anything 4 or higher. I looked because we are still on 4.1.

  6. Ram says

    12 September, 2012 at 14:58

    Hi – Just finished upgrading ESXi to 5.1. I like web client.

    Just one quick question – may be out of the topic or ignorant – please bear with me – I am running vCenter on Server 2008. Is it possible to install ovf vCenter Server Appliance inside vCenter?

    • Duncan Epping says

      12 September, 2012 at 16:26

      Yes you can import the appliance inside a vCenter Server cluster. No problem at all. You could fully configure it, setup a new cluster etc and then add your hosts for instance. This is what I do in my Lab environment when I want to test a new release.

      • Ram says

        12 September, 2012 at 16:58

        I will perform the vcva deployment tonight. Thanks!

        By the way can anybody share ovf DP for testing. I am unemployed (looking for work) and don’t have enterprise plus license. As a result unable to download trial version of Data Protection appliance from vmware site.

    • Pawel says

      14 September, 2012 at 14:16

      Well, it does not matter if you deploy a VM with Windows Server and install a ‘regular’ vCenter Server there or deploy a VM with vCenter embedded (i.e. vCenter Applicance). Both are installed as virtual machines.

      Duncan: do you see any disadvantages or deploying vCenter as a virtual machines? Any particular environments where one could prefer vCenter on a physical machine?

      • Duncan Epping says

        14 September, 2012 at 15:15

        I have never installed it as a physical machine… and I have only heard of a few customers doing it. Some had policies/regulations which forced them to install it physically. One other had such a crazy amount of inventory objects and new tasks being spun up every second that they decided physical because of the size of the VM otherwise.

        But I would always recommend virtual.

        • Pawel says

          15 September, 2012 at 22:53

          Funny thing – most of my customers used to have vCenter on physical machines. I did not fnd however any particular reason for that, that’s why I asked. Thanks for your answer 🙂

          • Tim says

            25 October, 2012 at 17:26

            Pawel, A lot of older setups were done like that. The general consensus at the time I think was that people thought vCenter was required to be physical to perform HA tasks. Even though it was an incorrect opinion. There also was a lot of supporting documentation from vendors (Dell in particular) that illustrated setups with a physical machine for just vCenter. In particular I remember a giant poster advert that Dell used to ship with new servers. My guess is the vendors just liked selling more hardware and that is why they marketed it that way. Anyways glad to hear you and most everyone else is keeping it all virtual like it should be.

  7. Totie Bash says

    14 September, 2012 at 17:45

    Duncan, I have been using vCenter appliance since 5.0 was release. I even use it for my View 5 environment (no linkclone) and I fully understand its limitation. My question is to get a glimpse of the future for the vCent appliance, is this the route that VMware is taking? Because, I am fully onboard with this. I was never a fan of the Windows variant of vCenter due to its ties with windows patching and at the mercy of other admins changing GPO security settings that can potentially brake vCenter and SQL database. By going the web client route I can see that you guys are closely braking the dependant from Windows.

    On another note, can you see the use case on this idea? I come to you because you guys at VMware has the power to drive this idea.
    http://toti3.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/future-dod-siprnet-vmware-view/

    • Pawel says

      15 September, 2012 at 23:26

      Additionally there is no use in deploying the full Windows Server machine just for vCenter. License might be an issue too for smaller organizations.

  8. Todd says

    16 September, 2012 at 01:23

    Duncan – Do you know if the vCenter Server Appliance still has the same limitations in 5.1 that it had in 5.0 in that it is only recommended for small environments (5 ESXi hosts or less)?

    • Duncan says

      16 September, 2012 at 08:19

      Yes….

  9. Totie Bash says

    17 September, 2012 at 14:37

    I read that vspere 5.1 is not compatible with view 5.1, what feature is holding it up?

    • Duncan Epping says

      18 September, 2012 at 21:01

      I don’t know to be honest.

  10. Suresh says

    17 September, 2012 at 14:56

    Duncan, Where can we find the VCSA 5.1 limitations.Does its support SRM ?We have environments with 70 hosts and 500 VM’s does VCSA 5.1 recommended to use.

    regards
    Surya

    • Duncan Epping says

      17 September, 2012 at 15:43

      50 VMs / 5 Hosts is the current recommended max for VCSA

      • John says

        18 September, 2012 at 20:30

        Is that only with the embedded database? If you are using oracle, are there the same limitations?

        • Duncan Epping says

          18 September, 2012 at 20:59

          That is only with the embedded DB indeed.

          • John says

            18 September, 2012 at 21:25

            Have you tried this with Oracle XE? We have a small lab for doing dev work and wanted to use the vCSA to manage it. We were going to start with 4 hosts, but would probably add in 4 more, so I didn’t want to use the embedded DB.

  11. Charles Moore says

    18 September, 2012 at 19:54

    Hi.

    Great article. Question:
    I have a 5.0 Host and I want to use VDP for my backup solution but it requires Vcenter 5.1. Can I run VCenter SA on my 5.0 host and will that work for the new VDP?

    Thanks again,
    Charles

    • Duncan Epping says

      18 September, 2012 at 21:00

      I am not sure I understand the question. You want to use VDP but have 5.0 hosts and want to run the vCenter Appliance on your 5.0 hosts to use VDP?

      I would suggest upgrading everything, simplify when you can 🙂

      • Charles says

        18 September, 2012 at 22:33

        Absolutely. I agree.

        Must I go to 5.0U1 or can I go straight to 5.1?

        Charles

        • Duncan Epping says

          18 September, 2012 at 23:20

          You could go to 5.1 directly.

          • Charles Moore says

            19 September, 2012 at 16:56

            After deploying VCSA 5.1, can I somehow import my VC server 5.0 Database and use only the Appliance going forward?

            Charles

  12. MBBAL says

    17 October, 2012 at 08:42

    Hi, I am currently on esxi 5.0. I am contemplating moving VC appliance. What is the benefit vis a vis a normal client.

    Will I loose any functionality?

  13. Amol says

    22 October, 2012 at 07:38

    Hi…after deploying Vcentre appliance 5.1, I am able to ping appliance but unable to open/access web console using https://<IP address vCenter appliance:5480…

    • David says

      4 January, 2013 at 06:09

      Turn off your browser proxy. I just spent an hour troubleshooting this (including a couple of VCSA re-installs) to figure this out. Annoying much…

      • Jean says

        13 August, 2013 at 22:13

        I’m having the same issue as Arnol. I removed my browser proxy but the web console remains unreachable. I tried with Chrome, IE and Firefox.

        Any ideas?

        • Jason says

          3 February, 2014 at 16:57

          Did anyone ever get any resolution to this. I just did the same thing (a year later) and have the same issue. FWIW we use static IP’s so I had to configure everything manually. Only the basics. No firewalls, routes, or anything like that.

  14. Steven Bouwer says

    5 November, 2012 at 13:46

    Hi, can I use VMware Replication appliance with Vcentre appliance 5.1?

  15. Sebastián Greco says

    16 November, 2012 at 13:59

    Hi,

    I really like VCSA every time more. Since version 5.1 with SSO and inventory services…it’s sooo much easier to just deploy the appliance (now it even has Autodeploy 🙂 ). Also, I’m a big Zimbra fan, and SSO with OpenLDAP, SAML and other things make this appliance to be a more important piece in the puzzle I think. By the way, if someone with power decision in VCSA architecture is reading, change “sendmail” by “postfix” as a mail service in the appliance! 😀

    I have one question and hopefully someone will be able to help with the answer:

    5 hosts/50 VMs is the limit for the embedded database for vCenter (we all agree with that I think)
    What about the limit/guidance/recomendation for SSO database? It can also be embedded or external but I can’t find any place that tells me what factors I should consider to make the proper design decision. It just looks like “you are free” to choose what best suites your infrastructure…

    I also posted this question in VMware communities with no final answer yet (more than 100 views but I still have hopes 🙂 )
    http://communities.vmware.com/message/2147803#2147803

    Thanks!!!
    Sebastian

  16. Joseph Kotran says

    1 December, 2012 at 03:18

    Hi, Is vCSA free for home use? I would like to run it indefinitely instead of a time limited evaluation.

  17. dave says

    21 December, 2012 at 01:36

    I just downloaded the vcsa and got the same no networking message. I tried logging in using root and vmware with no success. Is there a different login for vcsa 5.1?

  18. Mark Haase says

    19 July, 2013 at 15:15

    What username and password do you use to log in to the VCSA console? I don’t remember providing a password during the OVA import. This seems like an important piece of information to omit.

    • John says

      19 July, 2013 at 15:33

      u – root
      p – vmware

      Its in the install instructions: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50%2FGUID-25FCBA87-5D2F-4CB6-85D7-88899B4AC174.html

  19. Claudio Donoso says

    26 November, 2013 at 23:22

    Hola a todos, como configuro la red a través del vami_config_net, donde ingreso los datos?? Gracias por sus respuestas

  20. paulgrevink says

    16 January, 2014 at 17:10

    Thank you for this one, saved my day. Especially note on the default gateway issue. Happened in my case.

    Best regards,

    Paul

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About the author

Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist in the Office of CTO of the Cloud Platform BU at VMware. He is a VCDX (# 007), the author of the "vSAN Deep Dive", the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series, and the host of the "Unexplored Territory" podcast.

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