Installing vCenter Server 5.0 in my Home Lab

Posted on 18th February 2012 by Simon

In this post I am going to document the installation process for VMware vCenter Server 5.0. Keeping inline with the rest of my lab environment I am using Windows 2008 R2 64bit as the OS for my installation.

Ensure you meet the following hardware and software requirements. The vCenter Server 5.0 installation can be either a physical or a virtual server.

Hardware Requirements

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Recommended Hardware Requirements

Depending on the amount of hosts and powered on VM’s you also have the following recommended configurations.

For up to 50 hosts and up to 500 powered on VM’s

For up to 300 hosts and up to 3000 powered on VM’s

For up to 1000 hosts and up to 10000 powered on VM’s

Software Requirements

vCenter Server 5.0 requires a 64-bit operating system and cannot be installed on a 32-bit operating system, that means you either need to upgrade your existing infrastructure to a 64bit OS’s or you’re going to have to look at the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) instead, word of warning where the Appliance is concerned is that it doesn’t support Microsoft SQL as a db. solution so you’re either going to need to be running Oracle or using the embedded DB2 db..

Supported Operating Systems are :-

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter R2 SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter R2 SP2 64bit

Supported Databases are:-

IBM DB2 Express C 9.7.2 -64-bit
IBM DB2 Express 9.7.2 -64-bit
IBM DB2 Workgroup 9.7.2 -64-bit
IBM DB2 Enterprise 9.7.2 -64-bit
IBM DB2 Express C 9.7.2 – 32-bit
IBM DB2 Workgroup 9.7.2 -32-bit
IBM DB2 Enterpirse 9.7.2 -32-bit
IBM DB2 Express C 9.5 – 32-bit
IBM DB2 Express 9.5 – 32-bit
IBM DB2 Workgroup 9.5 -32-bit
IBM DB2 Enterprise 9.5 -32-bit
IBM DB2 Enterprise 9
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise (R2) – 64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise (R2) – 32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard (R2) – 64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard (R2) – 32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express (R2) – 64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (SP2) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (SP2) -32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (SP2) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (SP2) -32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (SP2) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition (SP2) -32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Datacenter Edition (SP4) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Datacenter Edition (SP4) -32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (SP4) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (SP4) -32-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (SP4) -64-bit
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (SP4) -32-bit
Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 64 bit
Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 32 bit
Oracle 11g Standard Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 64 bit
Oracle 11g Standard Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 32 bit
Oracle 11g Standard ONE Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 64 bit
Oracle 11g Standard ONE Edition, Release 2 [11.2.0.1] – 32 bit
Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Release 1 [11.1.0.7.0] 64-bit
Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition, Release 1 [11.1.0.7.0] – 32-bit
Oracle 11g Standard Edition , Release 1 [11.1.0.7.0] 64-bit
Oracle 11g Standard Edition , Release 1 [11.1.0.7.0] – 32-bit
Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 64 bit
Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 32 bit
Oracle 10g Standard Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 64 bit
Oracle 10g Standard Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 32 bit
Oracle 10g Standard ONE Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 64 bit
Oracle 10g Standard ONE Edition, Release 2 [10.2.0.4] – 32 bit

Setting up the vCenter 5.0 database

During the installation of vCenter 5.0 you have the choice of installing a new installation of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express or using an existing db. in my case I am connecting to an existing SQL Server 2008 R2 installation, because of that we need to create the DB and ODBC connection.

Using SQL Server Management Server you need to create a new db.

Right click on Databases and choose New Database

Call it VC50 and click OK

Now we need to create a SQL user, browse down to Security and then Logins, right click and create a new login. In my case I created a user called vc_user, because this is a SQL user we also need to allocate a password, untick the Enforce Password Policy box and finally choose the default database to be VC50. Click OK

Next we are going to map the user to the vCenter db. (VC50), it needs the default schema set to dbo, we also add the vc_user account to be a dbo on the msdb db because when the vCenter installation starts and we don’t have those permissions configured the installation will error (the installation tries to create some new SQL Agent jobs that can’t be created unless the vc_user account has dbo permissions on the msdb db.). Once the installation has finished you can remove the vc_user permissions from the msdb db.

Now we move over to the server that will be hosting the vCenter server because we need to install the .net framework 3.5.1 feature. Open Server Manager and click on Features, choose .Net Framework 3.5.1 Features and click Next

Now we need to install the SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client, this is used to create the ODBC connection required to connect to the remote SQL 2008 R2 Server instance. Once downloaded run the msi file and Click Next

Accept the terms and press Next

Enter your Name and Company details here and press Next

Just install the Client Components and click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Now we need to launch the ODBC Wizard, go to Start and in the run box type odbc to bring up the above screen

Click on the System DSN tab and click Add

Choose SQL Server Native Client 10 and click Finish

Enter the required details here, if your SQL Server doesn’t appear in the drop down list make sure that the SQL Server Agent is running on the remote SQL Server, click Next

Use the SQL User created earlier on to connect to the remote SQL Server instance, click Next

Click Next

Click Finish

Click Test Data Source

Click OK

Now it’s time to start the vCenter Server installation, either mount the iso file or burn it to physical media and insert it into your cd\dvd drive, let the autorun load and choose the vCenter Server installer, then click Install

Choose your desired language and click OK

Click Next

Accept the terms and click Next

Enter your details here, because this is being run in a home lab environment this is not going to have a license entered which will give me a 60 day trial, click Next

Choose Use and existing supported database and use the drop down to choose the DSN created earlier then click Next

Enter the SQL user credentials and click Next

Because I haven’t changed the recovery mode you will see the above screen shot, either speak to your DBAs or follow this link for more information. Click OK to continue

I am using the local System Account to run the vCenter Server service. Enter the FQDN for the vCenter Server and click Next

If you don’t have Reverse DNS Lookup configured you will received the above message, speak to your Sys Admins to ensure that Reverse Lookup is configured correctly. Click OK to continue

Choose your installation locations and click Next

As this is being deployed into my Home Lab environment this is being installed as a standalone instance, however if you are adding an additional vCenter server into your existing environment you would choose Linked Mode. Click Next to continue