When you use the GUI method to deploy a vCenter Server appliance, 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.

Table 1. Required Information During Stage 1 of the GUI Deployment Process
Required Information Default Your Entry

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 -

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

Target server must be a vCenter Server instance.

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 -
VM name for the appliance
  • Must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/)
  • Must be no more than 80 characters in length
vCenter Server
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 (!)
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Deployment size of the vCenter Server appliance for your vSphere environment. See Hardware Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance for information about the deployment sizes you can select. The option that you select determines the number of CPUs and the amount of memory for the appliance. Tiny

Storage size of the vCenter Server appliance for your vSphere environment. The required storage depends not only on the size of the vSphere environment, but also on the disk provisioning mode. See Storage Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance.

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

Default
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

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

FQDN

For a static IP assignment

vCenter Server uses FQDN or IP address as the system name.

-
IP address -

For IPv4 networks, you can use either a subnet mask or a network prefix. Subnet mask uses a dot decimal notation (for example, 255.255.255.0). An IPv4 network prefix is an integer between 0 and 32.

For IPv6 networks, you must use a network prefix. An IPv6 network prefix is an integer between 0 and 128 .

-
Default gateway -
DNS servers separated by commas -
System name (FQDN)

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

 -
Table 2. Required Information During Stage 2 of the GUI Deployment Process
Required Information Default Your Entry

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 High Availability requires remote SSH access to the appliance.
Disabled

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

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