You can use the GUI installer to perform an interactive deployment of a vCenter Server appliance. You must run the GUI deployment from a Windows, Linux, or Mac machine that is in the network on which you want to deploy the appliance.

Figure 1. Deployment Workflow of a vCenter Server Appliance

Deployment workflow that consists of two stages

Prerequisites

Stage 1 - Deploy the OVA File as a vCenter Server Appliance

With stage 1 of the deployment process, you deploy the OVA file, which is included in the vCenter Server installer, as a vCenter Server appliance.

Procedure

  1. In the vCenter Server 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. 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.
  6. 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 (()).

  7. Select the deployment size for the vCenter Server appliance for your vSphere inventory.
    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.
  8. Select the storage size for the vCenter Server appliance, and click Next.
    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.
  9. Select the storage location for the vCenter Server appliance where all the virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks will be stored.
    Option Action
    Install on an existing datastore accessible from the target host Select a datastore from the list of compatible datastores.
    Install on a new vSAN cluster containing the target host

    Specify the required details to create a new vSAN cluster or a vSAN Express Storage Architecture (vSAN ESA) cluster to store the vCenter Server appliance.

    Install on an existing vSAN datastore and claim additional disks Specify the required details to create a cluster on the vSAN datastore. This option is displayed only if your environment contains a vSAN datastore.

    To enable thin provisioning, select Enable Thin Disk Mode. NFS datastores are thin provisioned by default.

  10. (Optional) If you selected vSAN as your storage location, you must claim disks for storage.
    • For vSAN, claim disks separately for cache tier and capacity tier.
    • For vSAN ESA, claim disks from the list of compatible disks.
  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.

    • 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 a custom HTTP and HTTPS port number, 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:
    1. You can only customize the HTTP and HTTPS ports during installation. You cannot customize any other port.
    2. You cannot change any port after installation.
    3. Upgrade or migration procedures persist all port configuration. Port customizations that were previously supported in Windows OS deployments are persisted in a Windows to Linux migration.
  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 Management Interface to set up and start the services.

Results

The newly deployed vCenter Server appliance is running on the target server but the services are not started.

Stage 2 - Set up the Newly Deployed vCenter Server Appliance

When the OVA deployment finishes, you are redirected to stage 2 of the deployment process to set up and start the services of the newly deployed vCenter Server appliance.

Procedure

  1. Review the introduction to stage 2 of the deployment process and click Next.
  2. Configure the time settings in the appliance, optionally enable remote SSH access to the appliance, and click Next.
    Option Description
    Synchronize time with the ESXi host Enables periodic time synchronization, and VMware Tools sets the time of the guest operating system to be the same as the time of the ESXi host.
    Synchronize time with NTP servers Uses a Network Time Protocol server for synchronizing the time. If you select this option, you must enter the names or IP addresses of the NTP servers separated by commas.
  3. Create a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain or join an existing domain.
    Option Description
    Create a new Single Sign-On domain Creates a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
    1. Enter the domain name, for example vsphere.local.
      Note: Ensure that the domain name does not contain any upper-case letters.
    2. Set the password for the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator account.

      This is the password for the user administrator@your_domain_name.

    3. Confirm the administrator password, and click Next.
    Join an existing vCenter Single Sign-On domain Joins a new vCenter Single Sign-On server to an existing vCenter Single Sign-On domain. You must provide the information about the vCenter Single Sign-On server to which you join the new vCenter Single Sign-On server.
    1. Enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or IP address of the vCenter Single Sign-On server to join.
    2. Enter the HTTPS port to use for communication with the vCenter Single Sign-On server.
    3. Enter the domain name for the vCenter Single Sign-On you are joining, for example vsphere.local.
    4. Enter the password of the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator account.
    5. Click Next.
    When you select to join an existing vCenter Single Sign-On domain, you enable the Enhanced Linked Mode feature. The infrastructure data is replicated with the joined vCenter Single Sign-On server.
  4. Review the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page and choose if you want to join the program.
    For information about the CEIP, see the Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program section in vCenter Server and Host Management.
  5. On the Ready to complete page, review the configuration settings for the vCenter Server appliance, click Finish, and click OK to complete stage 2 of the deployment process and set up the appliance.
  6. (Optional) After the initial setup finishes, enter the URL from the browser with https://vcenter_server_appliance_fqdn/ui to go to the vSphere Client and log in to the vCenter Server instance in the vCenter Server appliance, or click the https://vcenter_server_appliance_fqdn:443 to go the vCenter Server appliance Getting Started page.
  7. Click Close to exit the wizard.
    You are redirected to the vCenter Server appliance Getting Started page.

What to do next

You can configure high availability for the vCenter Server appliance. For information about providing vCenter Server appliance high availability, see vSphere Availability.