Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance

You can deploy the vCenter Server appliance to manage your vSphere environment.

You can deploy the vCenter Server appliance on an ESXi host 6.5 or later, or on an ESXi host or DRS cluster from the inventory of a vCenter Server instance 6.5 or later.

For information about the software included in the vCenter Server appliance 7.0, see Overview of the vCenter Server Appliance.

For information about the software and hardware requirements for deploying the vCenter Server appliance, see System Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance.

The vCenter Server installer contains executable files both for GUI and CLI deployments.

The GUI deployment is a two stage process. The first stage is a deployment wizard that deploys the OVA file of the appliance on the target ESXi host or vCenter Server instance. After the OVA deployment finishes, you are redirected to the second stage of the process that sets up and starts the services of the newly deployed appliance.
The CLI deployment method involves running a CLI command against a JSON file that you previously prepared. The CLI installer parses the configuration parameters and their values from the JSON file and generates an OVF Tool command that automatically deploys and sets up the appliance. The CLI deployment automatically runs both stage 1 then stage 2, with no user interaction required.

The vCenter Server appliance has the following default user names:

User Name	Description
root	Use this user name to log in to the appliance operating system and the vCenter Server Management Interface. You set the password while deploying the virtual appliance.
administrator@`your_domain_name`	Use this user name for vCenter Single Sign-On login. You set the password while creating the vCenter Single Sign-On domain. You create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain during the deployment of a vCenter Server appliance in a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain. After you create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain, only the administrator@`your_domain_name` user has the privileges required to log in to vCenter Single Sign-On and vCenter Server. The administrator@`your_domain_name` user can proceed as follows: Add an identity source in which additional users and groups are defined to vCenter Single Sign-On. Give permissions to the users and groups. For information about adding identity sources and giving permissions to the users and groups, see vSphere Authentication .

User Name

Description

root

Use this user name to log in to the appliance operating system and the vCenter Server Management Interface.

You set the password while deploying the virtual appliance.

administrator@your_domain_name

Use this user name for vCenter Single Sign-On login.

You set the password while creating the vCenter Single Sign-On domain. You create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain during the deployment of a vCenter Server appliance in a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

After you create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain, only the administrator@your_domain_name user has the privileges required to log in to vCenter Single Sign-On and vCenter Server.

The administrator@your_domain_name user can proceed as follows:

Add an identity source in which additional users and groups are defined to vCenter Single Sign-On.
Give permissions to the users and groups.

For information about adding identity sources and giving permissions to the users and groups, see vSphere Authentication .

For information about upgrading and patching the vCenter Server appliance, see vSphere Upgrade.

For information about configuring vCenter Server, see vCenter Server Configuration.

If you want to set up vCenter Server to use an IPv6 address version, use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or host name of the appliance. To set up an IPv4 address, the best practice is to use the FQDN or host name of the appliance, because the IP address can change if assigned by DHCP.