How to install VMware vCenter Server 5 on Windows 7

How to install VMware vCenter Server 5 on Windows 7

To install VMware vCenter server on Windows 7 64 bit with SP1 we need to modify VMware vCenter 5 & VMware vSphere Update Manager 5 “MSI” files. Actually VMware vCenter Server 5 is not supported officially on Windows 7 .
How to Install VMware vCenter Server 5
How to Install VMware vSphere Update Manager 5
How to Install Vmware vSphere 5 on VMware Workstation
1. Download & extract ISO image of VMware vCenter Server 5 to any folder in Windows 7 machine.
2. Download “Insted” for editing msi file from Download InSted and install it on your system.

3. Open Insted and open file “VMware vCenter Server.msi” from the extracted VMware vCenter folder.

4. In Tables click on item “LaunchCondition”

5. on the right find row with text, as shown below,
Installed Or ((MsiNTProductType = 3) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT = 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 2)))
and modify it to
Installed Or ((MsiNTProductType = 1) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT > 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 0)))
after that save and close InSted.

1. Now open file “VMware vSphere Update Manager.msi” from the extracted VMware vcenter media.
2. in Tables click on item “LaunchCondition”
3. on the right find row with text,
(MsiNTProductType = 3) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT = 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 2))
and modify it to:
(MsiNTProductType = 1) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT > 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 0))
Now save and close.

Now download 64-bit version of Microsoft AD LDS “ADAM” from below URL,
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) for Windows7
and install it on machine.
Now run “autorun.exe” from VMware vcenter extracted media folder to install vCenter Server and Update Manager on Windows 7.

How to install vCenter Server and Update Manager 5.0 on Windows 7 64-bit

VERSION 1

Created on: Aug 26, 2011 6:54 AM by vlho - Last Modified: Aug 26, 2011 7:32 AM by vlho

I published solution "How to install vCenter Server 4.1 on Windows 7 64-bit" some time ago,

you can find it here: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1626499?tstart=0

Now I come with guide "How to install vCenter Server and/ or Update Manager 5.0 on Windows 7 64-bit",

because this OS again is not supported for this applications. Unfortunately.

It isn't supported but it works. Fortunately.

Preamble warning: this hacking is not supported by VMware !

1/ extract iso image of vCenter Server (e.g. in 7zip) to any folder in destination machine

2/ download application for editing msi file e.g. Insted from http://www.instedit.com/download.html and install it

3/ run Insted and open file ...\vCenter-Server\VMware vCenter Server.msi

4/ in Tables click on item "LaunchCondition"

5/ on the right find row with text:

Installed Or ((MsiNTProductType = 3) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT = 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 2)))

and modify it to:

Installed Or ((MsiNTProductType = 1) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT > 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 0)))

after that save and close

6/ in Insted open file ...\UpdateManager\VMware vSphere Update Manager.msi

7/ in Tables click on item "LaunchCondition"

8/ on the right find row with text:

(MsiNTProductType = 3) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT = 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 2))

and modify it to:

(MsiNTProductType = 1) And (VersionNT > 502 Or (VersionNT > 502 And ServicePackLevel >= 0))

after that save and close

9/ download 64-bit version of Microsoft AD LDS (new name for ADAM) from:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=14683

and install it

10/ run ..\autorun.exe to install vCenter Server and Update Manager ...

Note:

- tested only on Windows 7 Professional SP1 English

- Power Settings in Windows 7 setup on High Performance

- if OS Windows 7 is member of domain, one thing is important: person doing all that installations must be signed as domain administrator not as local administrator

- I have UAC disabled

- I believe that it will work on Windows Vista 64-bit too

- this procedure was successfully tested for upgrade from vCenter Server 4.1 U1 too

Optimalizations (optional):

- disable IP6 if is not need (and service IP Helper)

- disable unnecessary services as Desktop Window Manager Session Manager, Security Center, Superfetch,

Themes, Windows Audio, Windows Audio Endpoint Builder, Windows Defender, Windows Search

If backup is realized at the VMware level, you should enable Auto Shrink for database VIM_VCDB in SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express.

How to Install VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Step by Step

How to Install VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Step by Step

Today I am going to cover how to install VMware vCenter Server 5.0. In my case I am using Windows 2008 R2 64bit as base operating system for my VMware vCenter Server. As vCenter Server 5.0 requires a 64-bit operating system and cannot be installed on a 32-bit operating system. Ensure you meet the minimum hardware requirements and that your hardware and operating system requirements are compliant. The vCenter Server 5.0 system can be a physical or a virtual machine.
Please check my last post how to install VMware vSphere 5.0 (ESXi5.0) on virtual machine,
Installing VMware vSphere 5.0 on VMware Workstation
VMware vSphere 5.0 (ESXi 5.0) Virtual Machine inside Virtual Machine nested Guests
Hardware Requirements:-
Processor – Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more logical cores
Memory – 4GB RAM. RAM requirements may be higher if your database runs on the same machine as vCenter Server.
Disk storage – 4GB Disk requirements may be higher if the vCenter Server database runs on the same machine. In vCenter Server 5.0, the default size for vCenter Server logs is 450MB. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express disk requirements Up to 2GB free disk space
Networking – 1Gbit NIC
Operating System RequirementvCenter Server 5.0 requires a 64-bit operating system and cannot be installed on a 32-bit operating system
These operating systems are supported:
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter R2 SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter SP2 64bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter R2 SP2 64bit
My Scenario -
VMware vCenter Server – Windows 2008 R2 64 bit Virtaul Machine with 4GB Ram & CPU with 2 logical cores
SQL Server – SQL Server 2008 R2 64 bit
First, you need to install .NET Framework 3.5.1
To install the .NET Framework 3.5.1 on Windows Server 2008 R2, follow below steps,
1.Open Server Manager.
2.Select the Features tab.
3.On the Feature page, click Add Features.
4.expand the .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features option.
5.Select the .NET Framework 3.5.1 item. (Without WCF)
6.Click the Next button.
7.On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click the Install button to complete the process.


Setting up the vCenter Server database,
First Install supported version of SQL server on a server or on the vCenter server. Skip this step if you are planning to use SQL Server Express which comes VMware vCenter.
Create a New SQL Server Database

Name the new database “VCDB” and set the required location for the database files on server & click “OK”

Create a SQL Server user names “VCUSER” & set password as shown below, Untick “Enforce password policy” and change the default database to “VCDB”

Now goto the “User Mapping” section. Tick the “Map” box for “VCDB” databases.
set the default schema to “dbo” and set the role membership to “db_owner”.

 
Click Ok.

Creating the Data Source (The DSN must be a 64-bit DSN)
Now open Data Source (ODBC) Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)

Click on Add

Select SQL Server Native Client 10.0 & click on Finish.

Assign name to the new data source & select your Sql server.

Enter your SQL server username & password

Test the data source connectivity.

Now we are done with our SQL database connectivity.

Installing VMware vCenter Server 5.0,

First download VMware vCenter Server 5.0 & launch the VMware vCenter Server setup. Select “vCenter Server” to install & Choose your language.

Click Next

Click next to continue,

Read the license agreement and agree. Click Next.

Enter the username, company name and license key (if you havent got a license key it will install a full evaluation version for 60 days)

Enter the system DSN that your created for the vCenter server database.
If using SQL Server 2005 Express select so and continue the installation which will install an instance of SQL Server Express to use as the vCenter Server database.

Click next to continue,

Choose “Create a standard VMware vCenter Server Instance”.

Keep the ports unless your are required to specifically change them form their defaults ones.

Set your deployment inventory size to correctly size the JVM memory for web services.

Click install

The installation is completed and click Finish.

Restart the system to apply the changes.

Now check the vCenter server services installed and are started,

Click Start -> Run -> services.msc
Ensure the below services are started and are running
VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices
VMware VirtualCenter Server
VMwareVCMSDS (Note: Runs under Network Service)

VMware vSphere Profile Driven Storage Services.

 

ESXi 5.0 Host Log Files

 VMware ได้คลอด vSphere 5.0 ออกมาแล้วและมี log บางไฟล์ที่มีเพิ่มเข้ามา ซึ่ง log ที่มีอยู่ใน ESXi 5.0 มีดังนี้
ESXi 5.0 Host Log Files

• /var/log/auth.log: เก็บการ authentication ทั้ง success และ failure
• /var/log/dhclient.log: เก็บ DHCP client service
• /var/log/esxupdate.log: เก็บ ESXi patch และ update installation logs
• /var/log/hostd.log: เก็บ Host management service logs ประกอบด้วย virtual machine and host Task and Events, communication with the vSphere Client and vCenter Server vpxa agent, and SDK connections
• /var/log/shell.log: เก็บการใช้งาน shell command ซึ่งประกอบด้วยการ enable/disable และทุก command ที่ถูกใช้
• /var/log/sysboot.log: เก็บ VMkernel startup และ module ที่ใช้งานล่าสุด
• /var/log/syslog.log: เก็บ Management service initialization, watchdogs, scheduled tasks and DCUI use
• /var/log/usb.log: เก็บเหตุการณ์ต่าง ๆ ที่เกิดขึ้นกับการใช้งาน USB
• /var/log/vob.log: เก็บเหตุการณ์ต่าง ๆ ที่เกิดขึ้นกับ VMkernel
• var/log/vmkernel.log: เก็บ log ของ Core VMKernel ประกอบด้วย device discovery, event ของ storage, networking device และ driver รวมถึง virtual machine startup
• /var/log/vmkwarning.log: เก็บรวบรวม message ทั้งหมดของ Warning and Alert log โดยเอามาจาก VMkernel logs
• /var/log/vmksummary.log: เก็บรวบรวมข้อมูลของ ESXi host startup และ shutdown , ชั่วโมง uptime, จำนวนของ VM ที่รันอยู่ และเก็บการใช้งานทรัพยากรของ host (service resource consumption)

นอกจาก log ข้างบนแล้ว ยังมี log ที่เกิดขึ้นเมื่อมีการเชื่อมต่อไปยัง vCenter Server อีกดังนี้

• /var/log/vpxa.log: เก็บ vCenter Server vpxa agent logs ซึ่งประกอบด้วยการสื่อสารระหว่าง vCenter Server และ the Host Management hostd agent
• /var/log/fdm.log: เก็บ vSphere High Availability logs

รวมที่เก็บ ESX log แต่ละอัน vSphere 4.x

รวมที่เก็บ ESX log แต่ละอัน 
จริงแล้วใน vCenter ก็มีการเก็บ Tasks and Events อยู่แล้ว แต่ก็ไม่ใช่ทั้งหมดของ log ใน ESX ซึ่งก็ไม่สามารถ Track ข้อมูลได้ทุกเหตุการณ์
ผมก็เลยรวบรวม log file ทั้งหมดที่อยู่ใน ESX ซึ่งใครใช้ linux อยู่ก็น่าจะง่ายเพราะหลาย file นั้นใช้ log file เดียวกันกับ Linux เลย โดย log file ทั้งหมด มีดังนี้

Log File	ชื่อ	รายละเอียด
/var/log/vmkernel	Vmkernel	เก็บข้อมูลกิจกรรม(activities) ต่าง ๆ บน virtual machine และ ESX host
/var/log/vmkwarning	Vmkernel Warnings	คัดลอก log ที่เกี่ยวกับการเตือน(warning) หรือมีความรุนแรงสูง(higher severity) จาก vmkernel log ทำให้สามารถดูง่ายกว่า vmkernel log
/var/log/vmksummary	Vmkernel Summary	เก็บสถิติของ availability and uptime
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log	Host Agent Log	เก็บข้อมูลที่ agent manages และ configure ESX host และ virtual machine
/var/log/vmware/vpx	VirtualCenter Agent	Contains information on the agent that communicates with VirtualCenter
/var/log/messages	Service Console	Log from the Linux kernel. Useful for underlying Linux issues. The kernel has no awareness of VMs running on the VMkernel
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log	ESX Boot Log	เก็บข้อมูลของ ESX เมื่อมีการ Boot
/var/log/vmware/webAccess	Web Access	เก็บข้อมูลเมื่อมีการเข้าใช้งาน ESX server ผ่าน Web-based
/var/log/secure	Authentication Log	เก็บข้อมูลการ connections ที่ต้องมีการ authentication เช่น VMware daemon
/var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log	ESX Firewall Log	เก็บข้อมูลทั้งหมดของ firewall
/var/log/vmware/aam	High Availability Log	เก็บข้อมูลที่เกี่ยวข้องกับ High Availability (HA) service
/var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log	ESX Update Log	เก็บข้อมูลทั้งหมดที่เกี่ยวกับการ update โดยการใช้ esxupdate tool

Reference: vmwarewolf.com, http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021806 Location of log files for VMware products

Managing Hyper-V with VMware vCenter XVP Manager

This article discusses the new plugin from VMware called "vCenter XVP Manager and Converter" that will allow vCenter to manage Hyper-V servers. 

Introduction

Microsoft and VMware aren't the best of friends. Rarely, if ever, do any VMware tools recognize Hyper-V. It is possible for System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) to manage VMware vSphere (but you probably wouldn't want to do it as they say that you just get the bare essentials).
Just this month, VMware announced a new free vCenter plugin that will allow vCenter to manage Hyper-V servers, just as it manages ESX and ESXi servers. This plugin is available from the VMware Labs website where VMware demonstrates their engineers' pet projects. This new plugin is called the "vCenter XVP Manager and Converter". I know, the name of the plugin doesn't hint that it can be used to manage Hyper-V but it does.

Not only can the plugin enable management of Hyper-V servers, it also allows vCenter to convert virtual machines from Hyper-V to vCenter. As you can guess, it's likely that VMware created this tool for other reasons than to just help out shops with mixed hypervisors. With the one-way conversion from Hyper-V to vCenter, this tool allows companies (and Admins) to make the jump from Hyper-V to vCenter, all within the familiar vCenter interface.
Here are the critical specs on XVP:

• Management of the following Microsoft Hyper-V platforms:
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) with Hyper-V role enabled
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled
• Familiar vCenter Server graphical user interface for navigating through and managing non-vSphere inventory
• Ease of virtual machine migrations from non-vSphere hosts to vSphere inventory
• Compatible with VMware vCenter Server 4.0 & 4.1
• Scalable up to management of 50 non-vSphere hosts

Downloading vCenter XVP Manager and Converter

You can download vCenter XVP Manager and Converter from VMware Labs. Like all other flings from VMware Labs, XVP is totally free (but unsupported).

Figure 1
To download XVP, all you have to do is to accept the technical preview agreement and click Download. The 25MB file downloaded quickly and I was looking at the contents of the ZIP file in no time. Inside the downloaded ZIP file, you'll find an install guide, release notes, and the XVP application executable. 

Installing vCenter XVP Manager

I ran the executable that I downloaded and went through the typical Windows install without trouble.

Figure 2
As part of the install, I had to enter my vCenter server hostname and administrative credentials.

Figure 3
Also during the install, I had to give the XVP server a name.
Figure 4
Once installed, I went to my vSphere Client then up to the Plug-ins drop down menu.
Figure 5
Now, I had to install the newly available VMware vCenter XVP Manager plugin, made available by the XVP Manager install. I clicked Download and Install on the new plugin and went through the quick install which, as you can see, ended in Figure 7.
Figure 6
Figure 7
Once the XVP Manager plugin was installed, I could go to my vSphere Client home screen and, under inventory, see the new Third-Part Hosts icon that you see in Figure 8.
Figure 8
After clicking on Third-Party Hosts, this brings you to the Getting Started tab for the new XVP Manager. Notice how, from here, you are prompted to Add a Third-Party Host or Import a Third-Party Virtual Machine (VM).
Figure 9
I chose to Add a Third-Party Host, as you see in Figure 10. I entered my Hyper-V server IP address and administrative credentials to allow my vCenter server to manage my Hyper-V Server.
Figure 10
As you can see in Figure 11, the Hyper-V server is now being managed by vCenter along with the virtual machine running in Hyper-V.
Figure 11
If we go to the Summary tab we can see the manufacturer and model of the Hyper-V server as well as stats about the number of CPUs, amount of RAM, CPU utilization, and disk capacity. We can also opt to shutdown or reboot the Hyper-V server here.
Figure 12
On the Configuration tab, we can see more info on the server hardware, memory, and networking configuration of the Hyper-V server. However, you'll find that you can't make configuration changes to any of these areas.
Figure 13
By right-clicking on the VM notice that you have power control over it, can access the console or edit its settings.
Figure 14
Finally, notice how you can access the console of the Hyper-V VM, directly from the vSphere Client, once XVP Manager is up and running.