In last post of this series learned how to External PSC for vCSA. In this post of vSphere 6.5 series, we will look into one of the best feature which is included in v 6.5 i.e high availability for vCenter Server.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

6: Deploying vCSA with embedded PSC

7: Deploying External PSC for vCSA

Customers were demanding a lot for high availability solution for vCenter Server for quite some time and VMware listened to customers and made this happen in version 6.5 of vSphere.

What is vCenter High Availability (VCHA)?

vCenter High Availability (vCenter HA) protects vCenter Server Appliance against host and hardware failures. The active-passive architecture of the solution can also help you reduce downtime significantly when you patch vCenter Server Appliance.… Read the rest

This is part 7 of the vSphere 6.5 learning series and in last part of this series we learned how to install vCSA with embedded PSC and touched on some basic settings which is needed to be done post deployment.

In this post we will learn how to deploy external PSC for vCSA. The goal here is to deploy external PSC first and then install vCSA which will use the external PSC.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

6: Deploying vCSA with embedded PSC

In last post we discussed and saw how easy VMware has made deployment process of vCSA and the process has changed a bit. The steps needed to deploy external PSC is no different then what we learned in last post.… Read the rest

In last post of this series we learnt how to install vCenter with embedded PSC on windows server.

In this post we will learn about deploying and configuring vCSA with embedded PSC.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring ESXi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

5: Installing vCenter Server on Windows

In vSphere 6.5 VMware has made the installation of vCenter appliance a lot easier than before. Earlier, deployment of vCSA needed client integration plugin to be installed on your system and the deployment was done through a browser. Client integration plugin had multiple compatibility issues. Now with vSphere 6.5 client integration plugin is no longer required. The deployment is going to be via an ISO which would have an installation wizard that can be executed on Windows, MAC or Linux.… Read the rest

Till now in this series we have discussed a lot of theory about vCenter Server/VCSA, deployment type etc and also we looked into system requirements for vCenter Server and PSC installation. Now its lab time where we will see the installation/configuration of the components.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

4: System Requirements for Installing vCenter Server

In my lab I am going to use an external SQL server database. My database version is SQL 2014.

1: Preparing vCenter Server Databases for Install

You can use following script to install the database and configure login,permission etc. This script will also configure the database schema for you

 

[code]
/ *** Create a SQL Server Database and User for vCenter Server *** /

use [master]
go
CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = ‘vcenter65’,
FILENAME = ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL12.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLDATAvcenter65.mdf’,… Read the rest

In last post of this series we discussed about various deployment models available for deploying vCenter Server and PSC. In this post we will look into minimum system requirements  that must be met for installing windows based vcenter Server.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from below links:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

3: vCenter Server and PSC Deployment Types

vCenter Server for Windows Requirements

To install vCenter Server on a windows, following hardware and software requirements must be met:

1: NTP ready environment : Clocks must be synchronized on the virtual machines where vCenter Server and PSC will be deployed. I previously wrote a blog on configuring Domain controller as NTP and you can read the article from here

2: Environment should be DNS Ready: Make sure you can successfully resolve hostnames of the servers. Also ensure Name to IP and IP to name resolution is happening fine for all the servers.… Read the rest

In last post of this series we had an overview of VCSA and touched a little bit on what are the new features that are included in VCSA v6.5.

In this post we will discuss about available deployment models for vcenter Server and VCSA.

If you have missed earlier post of this series, you can read them from here:

1: Installing and Configuring Esxi

2: VCSA Overview

Windows based vCenter Server or VCSA can be deployed either with an embedded PSC or an external PSC. You can also deploy a PSC as an appliance or install it on Windows. Depending on your infrastructure needs, it can be mix and match of both.

Before proceeding with installation of vCenter Server Appliance or vCenter Server for Windows, you must determine the deployment model that is suitable for your environment. The deployment types can be categorised in mainly 3 categories:

vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller

This is a standalone deployment type that has its own vCenter Single Sign-On domain with a single site.… Read the rest

In first post of this series Installing and Configuring Esxi we looked into Installation of Esxi 6.5 and as I stated in that post installation method has not changed at all. In this post we will look into overview of VCSA and will discuss about VCSA components.

Staring with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) offers same scalability as provided by windows based vCenter Server installation. Earlier there was a limitation with vCSA that it cannot support huge infrastructure where you have a lot of Esxi hosts and virtual machines running. Same holds true for v6.5 as well.

Earlier in v6.0 there was a limitation that if you are planning to use VUM in your infrastructure, you have to install it on a windows server.

Lot of customers had provided the feedback to VMware to include VUM with linux based VCSA and VMware listened to them and now in v6.5 VUM can be used alongside VCSA on same node.… Read the rest

We all know that vSphere 6.5 was announced by VMware 2 weeks back in VMworld Barcelona. With the release of 6.5 version of vSphere, VMware has done some fantastic work with HA and DRS enhancements. Several folks wrote blogs on the new features and enhancements that are included in this new release.

If you have not read about the new features/enhancements in vSphere 6.5, you can read it from here. Brian has done fantastic job by summing up all that you want to know about vSphere 6.5.

After reading a bit about vSphere 6.5, I decided to deploy and test it in my lab.

Note: The GA and beta version has not been released yet by VMware.

Let’s begin with part 1 of this series where we will see installation/configuration of Esxi host.

vSphere is a sophisticated product with multiple components to install and setup. Typically installing vSphere includes the following tasks:

 

We are starting with deploying Esxi host.… Read the rest