VMware vSphere: Install and configure Virtual Centre Server 4.0

VMware vCenter Server provides centralized platform to manage virtual infrastructure i.e. ESX Hosts, Virtual Machines, storage and other resources. VMware vCenter Server, formerly VMware vCenter, centrally manages VMware ESX4.0 aka vSphere environments allowing VMware administrator manage and administer the virtual environment.

vCentre Server Systems Requirement:

Microsoft .NET 2.0

Microsoft .NET 3.0 SP1

Microsoft Visual J#

vSphere Client 4.0

vSphere Host Update Utility 4.0

Microsoft SQL Express 2005

I would recommend to have more disk space for vCentre then minimum requirement as update manager required more space then mentioned above. Bundle products such as Essential and Essential Plus will install prerequisite itself without user intervention. For large scale deployment, use database calculator to find out disk space requirement.

Installation of vCentre Server 4.0:

 

Mount VMware-VIMSetup-all-4.0.0-208156.iso in CDROM. Right click on cdrom and install applications shown here in virtual centre server.

Virtual Centre Configuration:

  

Add VC License key in vCenter Server Settings. Administration>vCenter Server Settings>Licensing>Enter Key

If you have ESX3.5 License server you can Type address of vCentre here.

Select ESX 4.0 Host>Configuration>Licensed Features>Edit>Type License Key

Add vSwitch and NICs for different VLANs as follows.

 

Add Roles and Users. Click View>Administration>Roles>Add Roles>Type Name of Roles>Select Privileges>ok

 

 

To Create User Permission. Select ESX host or Virtual machine>click permission>Right click>Add Permission>type domain\username>add>check propagate>ok.

Point vSphere client to home and select desired config tabs.

Update Plug ins.

 

Further Study:

Technical Resource Centre

VMware vSphere Documentations

VMware vSphere: Products, Price and Features

VMware vSphere is the first cloud computing systems in information technology industry. There is no doubt about ESX’s reliability and performance. With the release of ESX 4.0 aka vSphere, there will be few features inbuilt into ESX 4.0 and rest are add on depending on how deep is your wallet. 

vSphere basic components are VMware ESX or VMware ESXi hypervisor, VMware VMFS, VMware vSphere Client, Four-way vSMP support. ESX products are divided in two categories with sub-categories based on customer needs and affordability.

Figure: ESX Product comparison source http://www.vmware.com

ESX aka vSphere small business product is available in Essentials and Essential Plus sub-category. These are bundled products with targeting small business customer who aren’t willing to spend money but to have virtualized servers. Hence saving money for hardware and management cost. These version of license doesn’t contain any DRS, vMotion, hot Add, vShield  luxury. But it works perfect if you want to virtualize 20+- servers. You can have maximum 3 ESX hosts with 2 processors each up-to 6 core per processor.  ESX small business editions are priced in-between USD995 to USD2995. Essential got an year support within price. But you have buy additional support for Essential Plus and it’s mandatory. I reckon, Mr Paul Maritz  released these editions to target Microsoft Hyper-v and off course you can use ESX without getting your hand into wallet i.e.  ESXi single server version without spending $$$.

vSphere Editions sub-divided into standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise plus categories. These four editions got variety of flavour a VMware Administrator wants to play with. VMware data recovery, fault tolerance, hot add, Host profiles, thin provisioning, vNetwork distributed switch, vSheild Zones, DRS, DPM, vMotion and lots more. You can have these cool features based on your need and $$$$. vSphere editions are priced from US$795/processor (six core/processor) to US$2875/processor (six core/processor). A minimum one year support agreement is required with all vSphere products.

To deploy ESX with complete functionality you must have vCentre server and SAN. You can manage, update, secure, provision and orchestrate any operation through vCentre. You have to purchase vCentre Server separately to do all cool stuff.

In conclusion, I would recommend investigating individual need and business objectives. It’s good to have a business case and technical overview what you are going to achieve after spending on hardware and hypervisor.

References:

Virtualization Assessment Tool 

Pricing Guide

TCO/ROI Calculator

Technical Resources

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