vSphere components ESXi and vCenter Server form the foundation of any modern day data center that is virtualized using VMware. Planning the deployment of these components and its execution is important as it forms the base for any other solution. We reviewed how scalable ESXi 6.5 is when compared to ESXi 5.5 or 6.0 in the previous chapter. Also, as mentioned in the previous chapter, there is no practical reason to use a Microsoft Windows Server to host vCenter and its components any longer. The vCenter appliance is the future, and with vSphere 6.5, VCSA is not a fully functional appliance with VUM integrated into it. For the same reason, we will not cover the installation of vCenter on a Windows server in this chapter.

The very first component that you will install in a fully virtualized VMware environment is the ESXi hypervisor. Although there are different methods of deploying ESXi 6.5, which include the use of auto deploy or an installation script, we will review how ESXi can be deployed using the interactive installer.

The installation of ESXi 6.5 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 6.5; this is available at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php. Once you have made sure that the server hardware is compatible, the next step is to make sure that the...

After the ESXi installation is complete, it is essential to configure its management network before it can be accessed. The management network is what makes the ESXi become a part of a network. It is backed by a VMkernel network interface. We will learn more about these in the networking chapter. The ESXi hypervisor runs a DHCP client, so it does procure a DHCP address if there is a DHCP server on its network; but, in most cases, that is not enough. For instance, if your management network is on a VLAN, then you will need to configure the VLAN ID. Also, it is recommended that the ESXi hosts be assigned with a static IP address. Hence, it becomes important to configure the management network of an ESXi host after it is installed. In this recipe, we will use the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) to achieve this.

vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 comes with a GUI installer that can run from different platforms (Windows, Linux, or macOS). The installer by itself has software and hardware requirements that need to be met for optimal performance during installation:

The following procedure will guide you through the steps involved in deploying VCSA 6.5 with an embedded PSC:

1. Map and browse the contents of the VCSA ISO ROM...

Starting with vSphere 6.0, VMware have bundled essential services such as the SSO, inventory service, and certificate management into a single manageable solution called the Platform Services Controller (PSC). The PSC can be installed on the same machine as the vCenter, installed on a separate supported Windows machine, or a PSC running on the virtual appliance.

Before we learn to deploy PSC, it is important to understand that there is more than one deployment model supported by VMware. Although PSC can be deployed as an embedded service along with VCSA, VMware does not support the pairing of an embedded PSC instance with an external PSC. Therefore, it is important...

In large environments, there can be more than one vCenter Server deployed to manage resources; it is beneficial to view all the vCenter inventories from a single management plane. This can be achieved using Enhanced Linked Mode.

Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) enables the linking of more than one vCenter Server, be it vCenter installed on a Windows machine or the VCSA. Although it is referred to as a method to link vCenter Servers together, the actual linking happens between the PSCs the vCenters are connected to. It is done by making the PSCs join a single SSO domain. This is a requirement. The PSCs in the same SSO domain will replicate roles and permissions, licenses, and other details, letting the administrator perform a single login into the vSphere Web Client to view and manage inventory objects of all the linked vCenter Servers...

An identity source is nothing but a repository of users and groups. These can be the local operating system users, Active Directory, or OpenLDAP and VMDIR sources.

The following procedure will guide you through the steps required to add identity sources to the SSO server:

1. Use vSphere Web Client to connect to vCenter Server. The URL will use the following syntax:

https://<IP Address or FQDN>:9443/vsphere-client
#Examples:
https://localhost:9443/vsphere-client
https://vcsa6501.vdescribed.lab:9443/vsphere-client

2. Log in using the default SSO administrator and its domain (the default is vsphere.local).

3. Use the vCenter inventory list to go to Administration:

4. Click on...

Be it a simple installation or component installation, you will only be able to connect to vCenter Server using the SSO administrator ([email protected]) after the installation. This is because, by default, the SSO administrator is assigned the vCenter administrator role. Most environments require other users to be able to connect to the vCenter Server. To make this possible, you will need to manually assign an access role to the user/group you would like to provide access to.

Make sure that the domain from which you will be selecting a group/user is added as an identity source. For instructions, read the Configuring SSO identity sources section of this chapter...