In last post of this series we learnt how to install vCenter Server 6 on Server 2012. I am new to vSphere 6 so at beginning I had kept things simple and installed vCenter and PSC on a single machine (embedded mode) and also used embedded vPostgres database.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

4: Installing vCenter 6

Earlier vCenter Server was holding the SSO component, but in vSphere 6 it is included as part of PSC. The Platform Services Controller contains the shared services that support vCenter Server and vCenter Server components.

In this post we will learn how to configure AD authentication in vCenter Server 6.0.

The vCenter SSO authentication service makes the VMware infrastructure more secure by allowing the various vSphere software components to communicate with each other through a secure token exchange mechanism, instead of requiring each component to
authenticate a user separately with a directory service like Active Directory.… Read More

In last post of this series we had learnt how to install Esxi server 6 and we found installation of Esxi 6 hypervisor has not changed much and it is pretty much same as like previous version.

If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

3: Installing and Configuring Esxi Server 6

In this post I’m going to walk you through the installation of VMware vCenter Server 6.0. The way vCenter server was installed in past has now changed big times. Earlier we had a choice to install SSO, Inventory Service, vCenter Server and Web-Client all on same machine or have a distributed architecture where all components were spread across multiple servers.

With vSphere 6.0 VMware introduced concept of PSC. Now we have only 2 nodes in vCenter deployment.… Read More

In last 2 post of this series we discussed overview of vSphere 6 and looked closely on components required for building a vSphere 6 lab at home. If you have missed earlier posts of this series then you can access the same by clicking on below links:

1: Introduction to vSphere 6

2: vSphere 6-Lab Setup

In this post we will look into installation of Esxi 6. I am using  Esxi version 6.0 update01 (Build 3073146) in my lab for this purpose.

Installation of Esxi has not changed much and its very similar to version 5.5. I am installing Esxi 6 in VMware Workstation on my local SATA hard disk but you may consider other options such as running Esxi host from USB disk or running stateless Esxi host with use of auto deploy.

Esxi 6 Installation

1: Attach the Esxi 6 iso image to the virtual machine and boot the system.… Read More

In my previous post vSphere 6-Introduction  we discussed a little bit about vSphere 6 and looked on what new features have been added in vSphere 6 along with change in configuration maximums. We also had a look on change in vCenter Server architecture and improvements in VMware Web-Client.

In this post we will have a look on the pieces which are required to build a vSphere 6 lab. With this let’s get started.

Hardware Component

I have a Dell M4800 Mobile workstation laptop with 32 GB of RAM and i7 Quad Core processor. I am running all the lab components inside VMware Workstation.

My Lab Components

1. I installed Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition as my base OS. This machine will act as my Domain Controller as well as DNS Server (AD Integrated DNS).
2. I have another Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition installed in VMware Workstation. This VM is acting as vCenter Server with Embedded vPostgres Database.

As part of my preparation for VCP6-DCV exam I have decided to start learning vSphere 6 and started setting up my lab for the same.

This will be a long series of posts where we will look into Installation, Configuration and Management of vSphere 6 components. A lot has been changed with vSphere 6 and its time to learn some new stuffs. So let’s get started.

Introduction to VMware vSphere 6.0

With Vmware vSphere 6.0 many changes are done in architecture and some new features were introduced. One of the major changes that were introduced in vSphere 6.0 was removing the dependency on inbuilt database server (MS SQL Express) by introducing vPostgres SQL as embedded database for vCenter server installation.

However you can use external database you can use MS-SQL or Oracle (only for windows based vCenter Server). For vCSA you are bounded to use vPostgres SQL database (which I think a hard move from VMware)

vSphere 6.0 version comparison

vSphere 6.0 is coming in 3 editions:

1: Standard: The standard version of vSphere 6 provides you following feature:

• HA and FT for 2 vCPU
• Data protection(VDP) and vSphere Replication (For replicating VM from one vSphere Infrastructure to other)
• vVOLS(Must be supported by backend storage) for creating virtualization aware storage
• SPBM(Storage Policy Based Management): For creating storage policies and assign it to VM to place it on appropriate storage.