Recently, I was working on a project that got badly
delayed, and to save time when the right hardware turned up, I attempted to set
up in the lab a pre-staged a vCenter and SRM installation in VMware
Workstation, the idea was to simply import and then re-IP the servers when the
storage platform was ready to build on. Alas, the experiment was doomed to
failure (navigate to the end to see why!)
Specs:
Initial specs for the servers in my lab which was only an
8GB quad core laptop! L
Fig. 1: Table of
Initial Specs
|
Name
|
vCPUs
|
RAM
|
C drive - OS
|
|
SITE01VC
|
2
|
1.8
|
40 GB
|
|
SITE01SRM
|
2
|
0.8
|
40 GB
|
|
SITE02VC
|
2
|
1.8
|
40 GB
|
|
SITE02SRM
|
2
|
0.8
|
40 GB
|
Note 1: I also had
a DNS server running on another device
Note 2: All the
drives here start of as thin-provisioned
Eventual specs when imported onto the vSphere 5 platform:
Fig. 2: Table of
Eventual Specs
|
Name
|
vCPUs
|
RAM
|
C drive - OS
|
D drive - Data
|
P drive - PF
|
|
SITE01VC
|
3
|
6 GB
|
40 GB
|
40 GB
|
10 GB
|
|
SITE01SRM
|
2
|
4 GB
|
40 GB
|
25 GB
|
7 GB
|
|
SITE02VC
|
3
|
6 GB
|
40 GB
|
40 GB
|
10 GB
|
|
SITE02SRM
|
2
|
4 GB
|
40 GB
|
25 GB
|
7 GB
|
Part 1 -
Initial Preparation:
1. On an
available DNS server, create A records for SITE01VC, SITE02VC, SITE01SRM,
SITE02SRM
2. Build 4 x
fresh installs of Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition
Note: Deploying
from a sysprep-ed template would also be suitable
3. Prep the
Windows servers: Activate, Time zone, IP addressing, Hostname, Windows Update,
Windows Error Reporting, CEIP, RDP, Windows Firewall (this list is basically
everything from the Initial Configuration Tasks Window)
4. Reboot to
apply name change
5. Download
latest critical and important updates and reboot where necessary
6. You might
also want to set to manual start unnecessary services such as - Distributed
Link Tracking Client and Print Spooler
7. Configure
the annoying IE ESC
8. Add a
second 40 GB drive to the vCenter servers - D drive for Data
9. Add a
second 25 GB drive to the SRM servers - D for data
10. Add a
third 10 GB drive (P) to the vCenter servers and move the page file here
11. Add a
second 7 GB drive (P) to the SRM servers and move the page file here
12. Reboot to
move the page file
Note: One of the
theories behind having OS, Data, Page File on different drives is so that if
you are using storage deduplication, you can group different drive types
together
Part 2 -
vCenter Installs:
SITE01VC
1. Create a
local admin account different from admin or administrator, and login
Note: Since we are
pre-staging the VC and SRM servers, we do not yet have the corporate domain to
join to
2. Install the
‘.NET Framework 3.5.1’ feature (and while we’re there, might as well install
‘Telnet Client’ also, just in case we need to do some troubleshooting)
3. Install SQL
Server 2008 R2 Express x64 (which is suitable for SMB environments)
Note: We install
SQL Express separately here because the installer bundled with VC 5.0 U1 puts
all the SQL program files on the C drive, and we want to put everything on D
4. Install SQL
Server 2008 R2 Management Studio Express x64
5. SQL Server
Configuration Manager: SQL Server Network Configuration - Protocols for
SQLEXPRESS - enable Named Pipes and TCP/IP, and for TCP/IP enter port 1433 in
the TCP port box for all IPs, and then restart the SQL Server Service. Also set
SQL Server Browser to auto start, and start the service.
6. SQL
Management Studio: connect to the database server and create a new database
VIM_VCDB
7. Administrative
Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) > System DSN > Add… > SQL Server Native
Client > Finish > Name = VMware vCenter, Server = SERVERNAME\SQLEXPRESS
> Next> Integrated Windows Authentication > Next > Change the
default database to: VIM_VCDB > Next > Finish > Test Data Source >
OK
8. Mount the
vCenter Server 5.0 U1a ISO and run the Autorun.exe
Note: Planning to
revisit this topic at a later date for vSphere 5.1
9. Run the
vCenter Server product installer > Next > Next > Next
Note 1: I tend to
use Authorised User for name when prompted
Note 2: Select ‘Use
an existing supported database’ and DSN = VMware vCenter
Note 3: Remember to
install with what will be the FQDN
Note 5: vCenter
Server and Inventory Service installed to D:\Program
Files\VMware\Infrastructure\
Note 6: SITE01VC is
installed as a standalone VMware vCenter Server instance
Note 7: Tick the
box to increase the number of ephemeral ports available - doesn’t hurt to do so
10. Restart if
prompted
11. Continue
installing vSphere Client, Adobe Flash Player, Web Client (Server), Update
Manager
Note 1: Adobe Flash
Player is required for the Web Client
Note 2: Remember to
register the Web Client with the VC FQDN at https://localhost:9443/admin-app;
and will tick the box to install the untrusted certificate and ignore the
warning for now
Note 3: Create the
VIM_UMDB for Update Manager as in 6 and 7; for 7 you will need to use the 32
bit DSN version from %systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64\Odbcad32.exe
Note 4: Update
Manager install - deselect ‘Download updates from default sources immediately
after installation’; remember to use the FQDN, and DNS names like everywhere
else since we’ll be re-IP-ing later!
12. I always
teak: vSphere Client > Home > vCenter Server Settings > Database
Retention Policy to 100 days or less to limit the growth of the Database
SITE02VC
13. Repeat as
for SITE01VC, the only difference is that this time we’ll be installing the
vCenter in Linked Mode!
And this is where the lab experiment failed!
Fig. 3: Join a
VMware vCenter Server group using linked mode to share information. VMware
vCenter Server warning - “This computer is not a member of a domain.
Installation can not continue. Please join this computer to a domain and then
retry this installation.”
Summary:
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