Milestone 03

vCenter Installation

vCenter ISO Install - Stage 1

Within ESXi, the CD/DVD Drive of xubuntu-wan was pointed to the vCenter 8 ISO uploaded to the ESXi datastore (name e.g. VMware-VCSA-all-8.0.0-...). Connect the drive, and mount it within Xubuntu.

Once mounted, run the UI installer at /media/<username>/VMware VCSA/vcsa-ui-installer/lin64/installer.

In the installer submenus, set the following options:

1. Introduction. Default.
2. EULA. Default.
3. Deployment target
   • ESXi host: IP address of ESXi machine
   • Username: root
   • Password: ESXi root password
4. Set up VM
   • VM name: vcenter
   • Root password: Secure root password
5. Select deployment size: Tiny
6. Select datastore
   • Enable Thin Disk Mode
7. Configure network settings
   • Network: 480-WAN
   • IP Address: 10.0.17.3
   • Prefix length: 24
   • Gateway: 10.0.17.2
   • DNS: 10.0.17.4

Once this stage is complete, begin stage 2 and enter the previously created root password when prompted. Note that this stage uses the vCenter management port of 5480.

vCenter Install - Stage 2

After entering the vCenter root password, select Setup from the server installer and set the following options for stage 2 of the installation:

1. Introduction. Default.
2. vCenter Server Configuration
   • Time synchronization mode: Synchronize time with the NTP servers
     • NTP Servers: pool.ntp.org
3. SSO Configuration
   • SSO Domain Name: vsphere.local
   • SSO Password: vCenter root password is fine here (same privs)

Finish stage 2, after which vCenter will be installed and ready for further configuration.

vCenter Configuration

vCenter can now be accessed at the configured IP, 10.0.17.3, or at the hostname vcenter (as DNS records were already configured in Milestone 02). Log in as administrator@vsphere.local with the SSO password configured previously.

Datacenter Creation

Within the first tab in vCenter, Right click the hostname → New Datacenter. Name it 480-reed.

Host Addition

Within the first tab in vCenter, Right click the newly created datacenter → Add Host. Set the following options:

1. Name
   • IP Address: Joyce IP, e.g. 192.168.7.44
2. Connection settings
   • Username: root
   • Password: ESXi root password The defaults are acceptable for the remainder of the options. The host should appears as connected after a few seconds.