When you use the GUI method to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller, a Platform Services Controller appliance, or a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller, the wizard prompts you for deployment and setup information. It is a best practice to keep a record of the values that you enter in case you must reinstall the product.

You can use this worksheet to record the information that you need for deploying a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller, a Platform Services Controller appliance, or a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller.

Table 1. Required Information During Stage 1 of the GUI Deployment Process
Required for Deployment of Required Information Default Your Entry
All deployment types

FQDN or IP address of the target server on which you want to deploy the appliance.

The target server can be either an ESXi host or a vCenter Server instance.

-
HTTPS port of the target server 443
User name with administrative privileges on the target server
  • If your target server is an ESXi host, use root.
  • If your target server is a vCenter Server instance, use user_name@your_domain_name, for example, [email protected].
-
Password of the user with administrative privileges on the target server -
All deployment types

Only if your target server is a vCenter Server instance

Data center from the vCenter Server inventory on which you want to deploy the appliance

Optionally you can provide a data center folder.

-
ESXi host or DRS cluster from the data center inventory on which you want to deploy the appliance -
All deployment types VM name for the appliance
  • Must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/)
  • Must be no more than 80 characters in length
VMware vCenter Server Appliance
All deployment types Password for the root user of the appliance operating system
  • Must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces.
  • Must be at least 8 characters, but no more than 20 characters in length
  • Must contain at least one uppercase letter
  • Must contain at least one lowercase letter
  • Must contain at least one number
  • Must contain at least one special character, for example, a dollar sign ($), hash key (#), at sign (@), period (.), or exclamation mark (!)
-
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller
Deployment size of the vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere environment
  • Tiny

    Deploys an appliance with 2 CPUs and 10 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines.

  • Small

    Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs and 16 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines.

  • Medium

    Deploys an appliance with 8 CPUs and 24 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines.

  • Large

    Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs and 32 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines.

  • X-Large

    Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs and 48 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines.

Tiny
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller

Storage size of the vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere environment

Increase the default storage size if you want larger volume for SEAT data (stats, events, alarms, and tasks).

  • Default

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 250 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 290 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 425 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 640 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 980 GB of storage.

  • Large

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 775 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 820 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 925 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 990 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1030 GB of storage.

  • X-Large

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1650 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1700 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1805 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1870 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1910 GB of storage.

Default
All deployment types Name of the datastore on which you want to store the configuration files and virtual disks of the appliance
Note: The installer displays a list of datastores that are accessible from your target server.
-
Enable or disable Thin Disk Mode Disabled
All deployment types

Name of the network to which to connect the appliance

Note: The installer displays a drop-down menu with networks that depend on the network settings of your target server. If you are deploying the appliance directly on an ESXi host, non-ephemeral distributed virtual port groups are not supported and are not displayed in the drop-down menu.

The network must be accessible from the client machine from which you perform the deployment.

-

IP version for the appliance address

Can be either IPv4 or IPv6.

IPv4

IP assignment for the appliance address

Can be either static or DHCP.

static
All deployment types

Only if you use a static assignment

System name (FQDN or IP address)

The system name is used for managing the local system. The system name must be FQDN. If a DNS server is not available, provide a static IP address.

-
IP address -

For IPv4 version, a subnet mask as a dot decimal notation or a network prefix as an integer between 0 and 32

For IPv6 version, a network prefix as an integer between 0 and 128

-
Default gateway -
DNS servers separated by commas -
All deployment types

Only if you use DHCP with IPv4 and have a Dynamic DNS (DDNS) server available in your environment.

 System name (FQDN) -
Table 2. Required Information During Stage 2 of the GUI Deployment Process
Required for Required Information Default Your Entry
All deployment types

Time synchronization settings

You can synchronize the time of the appliance either with the time of the ESXi host or with one or more NTP servers.

If you want to use more than one NTP servers, you must provide the IP addresses or FQDNs of the NTP servers as a comma-separated list.

Synchronize time with NTP servers
Enable or disable SSH access
Note: vCenter Server Appliance high availability requires remote SSH access to the appliance.
Disabled
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • Platform Services Controller appliance as the first instance in a new domain

Name for the new vCenter Single Sign-On domain

For example, vsphere.local.

-
Password for the administrator account, administrator@your_domain_name
  • Must be at least 8 characters, but no more than 20 characters in length
  • Must contain at least one uppercase letter
  • Must contain at least one lowercase letter
  • Must contain at least one number
  • Must contain at least one special character, such as ampersand (&), hash key (#), and percent sign (%)
-
Site name -
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller
  • Platform Services Controller appliance as a subsequent instance in an existing domain
FQDN or IP address of the Platform Services Controller instance that you want to join

You must join a Platform Services Controller instance of the same version.

-
HTTPS port of the Platform Services Controller instance 443

vCenter Single Sign On domain name of the Platform Services Controller instance

For example, vsphere.local.

-
Password of the vCenter Single Sign On administrator user for the domain -

vCenter Single Sign-On site name

You can join an existing site or create a new site.

-
  • vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • Platform Services Controller appliance

Join or do not participate in the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)

For information about the CEIP, see the Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program section in vCenter Server and Host Management.

Join the CEIP