VCSA

Install VMware vCenter

Install VMware vCenter

VMware vCenter is a wonderful application that lets you take full advantage of your ESXi hosts. If you have more than one ESXi host you should look at vCenter. The full name of vCenter is vCenter Server Appliance or VCSA.

In this post, I will show you step-by-step how to install vCenter 8. The process is broken up into two stages. Stage 1 is the deployment on the vCenter VM and Stage 2 is the final settings to the vCenter VM.

The Process

Stage 1

  • Using a system that has access to the ESXi host you plan to use to create the vCenter VM download the vCenter ISO from VMware.
  • Mount or extract the ISO. I’m going to mount it.
  • Browse to \vcsa-ui-installer\win32 and run Installer.exe
  • Select Install

The next screen is the intro screen which lets you know that the process will be in two stages. The first stage is deploying the VM and the second stage is the final settings for the vCenter VM.

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VMware Tools on Windows Server Core

VMware Tools on Windows Server Core

I’m a fan of using Microsoft Windows Server Core for as many things as possible when it makes sense. In this post, I’ll cover step-by-step how to install VMware Tools on Windows Server Core via the GUI and PowerShell.

The GUI Way

  • From ESXi or vCenter mount VMware tools to the VM.
  • Login to the Windows Server Core VM.
  • Change to the D drive (or whichever drive your disk drive is on your install)
  • Enter the following command to being the install .\setup64.exe

Sometimes the VMware tools install screen hides behind the command line window.

  • Click Next
  • Select Typical and click Next.
  • Click Install.
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VMware Copy Paste Enabler

VMware Copy Paste Enabler

Something that has annoyed me with VMware when compared to Hyper-V is the fact that Hyper-V lets you paste into the VM console. By default VMware has that disabled but you can manually enable it. Doing that is kind of slow so I wrote a script with PowerCLI to enable copy paste on a VM.

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Convert a system with VMware Converter

Convert a system with VMware Converter

There are a few ways to convert a system either P2V (Physical to Virtual) or V2V (Hyper V to VMware). This will show you how to convert a system using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client.

Before you start you should check a few things to make the whole process streamlined.

  1. Check that the system is fully up to date (you might get stuck in an update trap if you don’t)
  2. Check that you have remote access to the system (so that if needed you can at least get back into the system easily)
  3. Make a note of the IP configurations (you will likely need to re add them)
  4. If the system a domain member make sure that you know the local admin username and password (this is so that if it fails to talk to the domain you at least have a way back into the system)
  • Install VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client on the system you will be converting.
  • Run VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client as Admin
  • Click on Convert machine
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Install VCSA Updates

Install VCSA Updates

Here is how to update VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance specifically version 7) with the web UI

  • Make sure you have a backup of your VCSA. I like to have a backup and a snapshot to be extra safe.
  • Click on you VCSA server
  • Click on the Update tab
  • In Update Planner select the update you want to install and click on Generate Report and select Interoperability. (this will check and make sure everything is compatible in your VCSA setup)
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