VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook: If you prefer practice to theory then this is the ideal book for learning how to install and configure VMware vSphere components. Packed with recipes, it's a hands-on tutorial and reference guide for this unbeatable virtualization product.

Starting with vSphere 5.0, VMware doesn't offer the ESX classic version, but the ESXi hypervisor version. The classic version of the ESX server had a Linux-based Service Console. One of the most evident benefits of removing the Service Console is that ESX hypervisor version (ESXi) will have a smaller installation footprint. It can even be embedded on the server boards or USB drives. Because of the smaller footprint, the installation is faster. Historically, most of the security updates that VMware released were for the Service Console and not for the hypervisor component. Meaning, as we move ahead we will require less frequent patching to be done on the ESXi servers.

The vCenter Server is the component that provides centralized management of your vSphere environment. Most of the administrative tasks on a single ESXi server can be done by using the vSphere Windows Client software. As in most cases, however, when you have an environment that has multiple ESXi servers, managing...

This recipe will focus on the steps needed to perform a fresh/new installation of vCenter Server 5.1 on a Windows machine.

The vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) can be either downloaded as a single package (OVA); or the OVF, system disk, and data disk can be downloaded separately.

At the time of writing this book, the following were the names of the appliance files:

VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.5100-799730_OVF10.ova

Or

VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.5100-799730_OVF10.ovf

VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.5100-799730-system.vmdk

VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.5100-799730-data.vmdk

These names could possibly change when VMware releases the next update. I have included the file names only to give you a sense of what files have to be downloaded.

Just deploying the appliance wouldn't just make it available for use. The appliance has to be prepared so that it can be made available on the network and can be used to manage ESXi servers.

Getting ready

Power on the appliance virtual machine. The first screen after the boot is shown in the following screenshot:

At this screen you could select Login to log in to the appliance.

Note

The default username and password for the appliance are root and vmware.

The Quickstart Guide section of the first screen will show you the URL that should be used to connect to the web interface of vCenter Server Appliance. This web interface is not used to manage the ESXi server, but to configure the vCenter Server Appliance. The How to do it... section of this recipe will help you configure and prepare the appliance for its first use.

Unlike the Windows version of vCenter, the vCSA will let you check for updates from within the appliance. This is different from upgrading the appliance. For upgrade instructions read the Upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance recipe.

In this recipe, I will show you how to install an available update.

This option is available under the Update tab, which has two subtabs, Status and Settings. The Status subtab will display the current appliance version. You can install any available updates to the appliance on this page.

The Upgrade tab is used when you have deployed a new version of the appliance and you want to migrate the settings to the new appliance. The upgrade is not in-place you will be deploying a new vCSA appliance and will migrate the settings from the old appliance to the newly deployed one.

ESXi 5.1 does not have a graphical installer. A new installation of ESXi 5.1 will now use a GUID Partition Table (GPT) instead of MBR, hence enabling the use of disks greater than 2 TB for installation.

Installation of ESXi 5.1 is pretty straightforward. It is recommended that you refer to the VMware Compatibility Guide web page to verify whether the server hardware is compatible with ESXi 5.1, available at the following link:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

For a complete list of hardware requirements, please refer to page 26 of the ESX Server Installation and Setup guide, available at the following link:

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-pubs.html

You could download the ESXi 5.1 ISO from the following link:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure...

With the help of the Installing ESXi 5.1 recipe, you should now be familiar with the regular interactive installation of the ESXi server. Although the interactive installation is an easy task, it becomes a tedious one when you are deploying servers in a larger environment. This is where a scripted installation could come in handy.

The How to do it... section will guide you through the steps required to perform a scripted installation.