With stage 1 of the deployment process, you deploy the OVA file, which is included in the vCenter Server Appliance installer, as a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller.

Procedure

  1. In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file.
    • For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file.
    • For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file.
    • For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file.
  2. On the Home page, click Install to start the deployment wizard.
  3. Review the Introduction page to understand the deployment process and click Next.
  4. Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next.
  5. On the Select deployment type page, select vCenter Server (Requires External Platform Services Controller) and click Next.
  6. Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the vCenter Server Appliance.
    Option Steps
    You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the appliance.
    1. Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host.
    2. Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host.
    3. Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user.
    4. Click Next.
    5. Verify that the certificate warning displays the SHA1 thumbprint of the SSL certificate that is installed on the target ESXi host, and click Yes to accept the certificate thumbprint.
    You can connect to a vCenter Server instance and browse the inventory to select an ESXi host or DRS cluster on which to deploy the appliance.
    1. Enter the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server instance.
    2. Enter the HTTPS port of the vCenter Server instance.
    3. Enter the user name and password of user with vCenter Single Sign-On administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@your_domain_name user.
    4. Click Next.
    5. Verify that the certificate warning displays the SHA1 thumbprint of the SSL certificate that is installed on the target vCenter Server instance, and click Yes to accept the certificate thumbprint.
    6. Select the data center or data center folder that contains the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the appliance, and click Next
      Note: You must select a data center or data center folder that contains at least one ESXi host that is not in lockdown or maintenance mode.
    7. Select the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the appliance, and click Next
  7. On the Set up appliance VM page, enter a name for the vCenter Server Appliance, set the password for the root user, and click Next.
    The appliance name must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/) and must be no more than 80 characters in length.

    The password must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces, at least eight characters, a number, uppercase and lowercase letters, and a special character, for example, an exclamation mark (!), hash key (#), at sign (@), or brackets (()).

  8. Select the deployment size for the vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere inventory.
    Deployment Size Option Description
    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

  9. Select the storage size for the vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next.
    Storage Size Option Description for Tiny Deployment Size Description for Small Deployment Size Description for Medium Deployment Size Description for Large Deployment Size Description for X-Large Deployment Size
    Default Deploys an appliance with 250 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 290 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 425 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 640 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 980 GB of storage.
    Large Deploys an appliance with 775 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 820 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 925 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 990 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1030 GB of storage.
    X-Large Deploys an appliance with 1650 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1700 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1805 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1870 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1910 GB of storage.
  10. From the list of available datastores, select the location where all the virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks will be stored and, optionally, enable thin provisioning by selecting Enable Thin Disk Mode.
  11. On the Configure network settings page, set up the network settings.

    The IP address or the FQDN of the appliance is used as a system name. It is recommended to use an FQDN. However, if you want to use an IP address, use static IP address allocation for the appliance, because IP addresses allocated by DHCP might change.

    Option Action
    Network Select the network to which to connect the appliance.

    The networks displayed in the drop-down menu depend on the network settings of the 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.

    IP version Select the version for the appliance IP address.

    You can select either IPv4 or IPv6.

    IP assignment Select how to allocate the IP address of the appliance.
    • static

      The wizard prompts you to enter the IP address and network settings.

      Note: Avoid using an IP address as a system name. If you use an IP address as a system name, you cannot change the IP address and update the DNS settings after deployment, and you cannot join the appliance to an Active Directory domain.
    • DHCP

      A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP address. Select this option only if a DHCP server is available in your environment.

      If there is an enabled DDNS in your environment, you can enter a preferred fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the appliance.

    Common Ports You can customize the HTTP and HTTPS ports (optional).
    If specifying custom HTTP and HTTPS port numbers, ensure that you do not use a port number already in use by vCenter Server, or the default HTTP and HTTPS ports of 80 and 443.
    Note: Custom ports are supported starting with vSphere 6.5 Update 2.
  12. On the Ready to complete stage 1 page, review the deployment settings for the vCenter Server Appliance and click Finish to start the OVA deployment process.
  13. Wait for the OVA deployment to finish, and click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of the deployment process to set up and start the services of the newly deployed appliance.
    Note: If you exit the wizard by clicking Close, you must log in to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface to set up and start the services.

Results

The newly deployed vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller is running on the target server but the services are not started.