VMware vCenter Configuration Manager - 5.6 Installation Manual

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager

Advanced Installation Guide

vCenter Configuration Manager 5.6

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

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About This Book 7

Achieving a Successful VCMInstallation 10

VCM Collector and Agent OS Platform Support 10

Hardware Requirements for Collector Machines 12

Determine the Size of Your Environment 12 Identify Your Specific Hardware Requirements 13

Database Sizing for Managed vCenter Server Instances 13 Hardware and Disk Requirements By Number of Managed Machines 14

Software and Operating System Requirements for Collector Machines 16

Sizing Impacts on Software Requirements 16 Software Installation and Configuration Overview 16 VCM Upgrades and Migrations 17

Preparing for Installation 18

VCM Installation Configurations 18

System Prerequisites to Install VCM 20

Establish Local Administration Rights 21 Verify Browser Compatibility 22 Verify the Default Network Authority Account 22 Verify the SQL Server Service Account 22 Specify the Collector Services Account 23 Verify the VMware Application Services Account 23 Verify the VCM Agent is Not Installed 24 Verify the SQLXML Version 25

Configure Resources to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine 26

Configure the Disk to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine 27 Configure the CPU to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine 27 Configure the Memory to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine 28

Secure Communications Certificates 30

Authenticating the Server to the Client 30

Enterprise and Collector Certificates 31 Delivering Initial Certificates to Agents 31

Single-Tier Server Installation 34

Configure a Single-Tier Installation Environment 36 Verify that the Installing User is an Administrator 37 Install and Configure a Windows Server 2008 R2 Operating System 38

Configure the Operating System Locale Settings 39 Disable the Remote Desktop Session Host 40 Enable DCOM 40

Install the .NET Framework 40

Verify the ASP.NET Client System Web Version 41

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Verify the ASPRole Service 41 Verify the ASP.NETRole Service 41

Configuring the Database Components of the VCM Collector 42

Install SQL Server on the VCMCollector 42 Verify and Configure the SQL Server Properties 44 Verify Matching SQL Server and Computer Names 45 Verify the SQLServer Agent Service Account is a sysadmin 45 Select the SQLServer Agent Service Account 46 Establish SQL Server Administration Rights 46

Configure the Web Components 47

Configuring IIS 49 Verify the ISAPI Extensions 50

Configure SSRS on the VCMCollector 51

Back Up Your SSRS Key 51 Disable IE Protected Mode for SSRS 51 Configure SSRS 52 Configure Basic Authentication on the Report Server 53 Configure Kerberos Authentication 54

Configure the VCM Collector Components 57

Two-Tier Split Installation 60

Configuring a Two-Tier Split Installation Environment 61 Verify that the Installing User is an Administrator 62 Install and Configure a Windows Server 2008 R2 Operating System 62

Configure the Operating System Locale Settings 64 Disable the Remote Desktop Session Host 64 Enable DCOM 64

Configuring the VCM Database Server 65

Disable the Firewall or Add an Exception for SQL Server Port 1433 65 Install SQL Server on the Database Server 66 Verify and Configure the SQL Server Properties 68 Verify Matching SQL Server and Computer Names 68 Verify the SQLServer Agent Service Account is a sysadmin 69 Select the SQLServer Agent Service Account 69 Establish SQL Server Administration Rights 70

Configure the Combined VCM Collector and Web Server 71

Install the .NET Framework 71 Configure the Web Components 72 Installing and Configuring SSRS on the Combined VCM Collector and Web Server 77 Configure Kerberos Authentication 81 Configure the VCM Collector Components 84

Three-Tier Split Installation 86

Configuring a Three-Tier Split Installation Environment 87 Verify that the Installing User is an Administrator 87 Install and Configure a Windows Server 2008 R2 Operating System 88

Configure the Operating System Locale Settings 89 Disable the Remote Desktop Session Host 90 Enable DCOM 90

Configure the VCM Database Server 90

Install SQL Server on the Database Server 91 Verify and Configure the SQL Server Properties 93 Verify Matching SQL Server and Computer Names 93 Verify the SQLServer Agent Service Account is a sysadmin 94 Select the SQLServer Agent Service Account 95 Establish SQL Server Administration Rights 95

Configure the Web Server 96

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Contents

Configuring IIS 98 Verify the ISAPI Extensions 100 Place the Web Server in the Internet Explorer Trusted Zone 100 Access to Patch Download Folder for Windows Patch Deployment 101 Installing and Configuring SSRS on the Web Server 102 Configure Kerberos Authentication 107 Modify the SQLCMD Path Variable 109

Configure the VCM Collector 110

Install the .NET Framework 111 Using VCM Remote 112

Installing VCM 116

DCOM and Port Requirements for VCM 117 Use Installation Managerto Install VCM 117 Install VCM 117 File System Permissions 118 Change Permissions On Machine Certificate Keys 119 Verify VCM Remote Virtual Directory Permissions 120

Configuring SQL Server for VCM 122

SQL Server Database Settings 122 SQL Server Processor Settings 123 SQL Server IO Configuration 123

Using the RAID Levels with SQLServer 124 Disk Interface and Disk Drive Performance 125 Use SQLIO to Determine IO Channel Throughput 126

Upgrading or Migrating VCM 128

Upgrading VCM and Components 128

Upgrade VCM 129 Upgrade Existing Windows Agents 130 Upgrade Existing VCM Remote Clients 130 Red Hat Server and Workstation Licensing 131 Upgrade Existing UNIX Agents 131

Upgrading Virtual Environments Collections 134

Upgrade the Managing Agent 134 Upgrading the vSphere Client VCM Plug-In 134 Upgrading Agent Proxy Machines 135

Migrating VCM 137

Prerequisites to Migrate VCM 138 Migrate Only Your Database 140 Replace Your Existing 32-Bit Environment with a Supported 64-bit Environment 141 Migrate a 32-bit Environment Running VCM 5.3 or Earlier to VCM 5.6 142 Migrate a 64-bit Environment Running VCM 5.3 or Earlier to VCM 5.6 143 Migrate a Split Installation of VCM 5.3 or Earlier to a Single-Tier, Two-Tier, or Three-Tier Server Installation 145 How to Recover Your Collector Machine if the Migration is not Successful 147

Maintaining VCM After Installation 150

Customize VCM and Component-Specific Settings 150 Configure Database File Growth 152 Database Recovery Models 152 Configure Database Recovery Settings 153 Create a Maintenance Plan for SQL Server 2008 R2 154 Incorporate the VCM Database into Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans 156

Hardware and Operating System Requirements for VCM Managed Machines 158

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VCM Agent Support on Non-English Windows Platforms 158 VCM Managed Machine Requirements 158 Windows Custom Information Supports PowerShell 2.0 160 Supported OS Provisioning Target Systems 161 Software Provisioning Requirements 161 UNIX and Linux Patch Assessment and Deployment Requirements 162 Support for VMware Cloud Infrastructure 163

Cloud and Virtualization Infrastructure Platforms 163 Managing Agent Requirements 163

Agent Proxy Requirements for VMware ESX and ESXi 163 vCenter Operations Manager Integration Features 165 FIPS Requirements 165

FIPS for Windows 165

FIPS for VCM Agent Proxies 167 Agent Sizing Information 167

Windows Machines 167

UNIX and Linux Machines 169

Mac OS X Machines 169

Hardware and Software Requirements for the Operating System Provisioning Server 170

Supported OS Provisioning Server Platform 170 OS Provisioning Server System Requirements 170 OS Provisioning Server Software Requirements 171

Required Packages 171

Disallowed Packages 171 OS Provisioning Server Network Requirements 171

Provisioning Network Interface 171

Configure the OS Provisioning Server Firewall 172

Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading the OS Provisioning Server and Components 174

Restricted Network Environment 174 Install and Configure the OS Provisioning Server 174

Install the Operating System Provisioning Server 175

Uninstall the OS Provisioning Server 176

Configure DHCP 177

Configure a DHCP Server Other Than the OS Provisioning Server 178

Configure TFTP 178

Create a Windows Boot Image 179

Copy the VCM Certificate to the OS Provisioning Server for Linux Provisioning 180 Import Distributions into the OS Provisioning Server Repository 181

Create Directories for Windows Distributions 181

Import Windows Distributions 182

Import Linux Distributions 183

Using the basicimport Command Options 185 Working with Custom Linux ISO Distributions 185 Upgrade the OS Provisioning Server to 5.5 186 Managing the OS Provisioning Server System Logs 188 ospctrl Command Options 189

Index 190

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About This Book

The VCM Advanced Installation Guide describes the steps to install VCM in all supported installation configurations. This document includes detailed information that does not appear in the VCM Installation Guide.

This document contains the following information:

Hardware requirements for VCM Collector machines

Software and operating system requirements for VCM Collector machines

System prerequisites to install VCM

Secure Communication Certificates

Single-tier, two-tier, and three-tier installation configurations

Configuring SQLServer for VCM

Hardware requirements for VCM managed machines

Hardware and software requirements for the OSProvisioning Server

Read this document and follow the procedures to successfully install VCM on existing physical or virtual machines in your environment.

The VCM Advanced Installation Guide applies to VCM 5.6, Foundation Checker 5.6, and Service Desk Connector 1.3.0.

Intended Audience

This information is written for experienced Windows or UNIX/Linux/Mac OSX system administrators who are familiar with managing network users and resources and with performing system maintenance.

To use this information effectively, you must have a basic understanding of how to configure network resources, install software, and administer operating systems. You also need to fully understand your network topology and resource naming conventions.

Document Feedback

VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com.

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

VMware VCM Documentation

The vCenter Configuration Manager (VCM) documentation consists of the VCM Installation Guide, VCM Administration Guide, VCM Advanced InstallationGuide, VCM online help, and other associated

documentation.

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Technical Support and Education Resources

The following technical support resources are available to you. To access the current version of this book and other books, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

Online and Telephone Support

To use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product and contract information, and register your products, go to

http://www.vmware.com/support.

Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for priority 1 issues. Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_

support.html.

Support Offerings To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business

needs, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/services.

VMware Professional Services

VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study examples, and course materials designed to be used as on-the-job reference tools. Courses are available onsite, in the classroom, and live online. For onsite pilot programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting

Services provides offerings to help you assess, plan, build, and manage your virtual environment. To access information about education classes, certification programs, and consulting services, go to

http://www.vmware.com/services.

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Achieving a Successful VCMInstallation

Perform the requirements to successfully install VMware vCenter Configuration Manager (VCM), and then install VCM in any of the supported single-tier, two-tier, or three-tier installation configurations.

Determine your specific hardware and software requirements for VMware vCenter Configuration Manager (VCM). Perform the preparatory steps to install and configure your physical and virtual machines for a successful VCM installation.

To determine your hardware and software requirements, begin by answering several questions.

How many vCenter Server, UNIX, Linux, and Windows servers and workstations will you license?

How often will you collect data?

How much data will you collect?

How long will you retain the collected data and change data?

What additional VCM components will you use? For available VCM components, see the Download VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Web site.

Do you understand the VCM security requirements? See the VCM Security Guide.

To achieve a successful VCM installation, you must understand the hardware and software requirements for VCM Collector machines and VCM managed machines, prepare your environment for VCM installation, then install VCM.

Before you install VCM, use the following chapters to prepare for VCM installation. Perform the prerequisite steps and procedures in the order presented, configure resources, configure your installation environment, then install VCM.

After you install VCM, set the file growth for your VCMdatabase, then create a maintenance plan.

VCM Collector and Agent OS Platform Support

All Agent and Collector OS platform support is specific to versions and editions indicated in the supported platforms table. Some configurations can reduce or block the performance or functionality of VCM components, such as configurations by vendors, third-party, custom lock downs, endpoint security products, policies, and restricted system. Troubleshooting and support of VCM components in lockeddown or reconfigured environments is not included under the standard product maintenance agreement. Support in these environments is available through an additional Professional Services engagement.

All testing is performed in a hardened environment, as documented in the VCM Security Guide. Testing with OS vendor hardening applied for the VCM Collector is part of the supported configurations.

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For details about VCM Collector machines, see Hardware Requirements for Collector Machines and Software and Operating System Requirements for Collector Machines in the VCM Installation Guide.

For details about VCM managed machines, see Hardware and Operating System Requirements for Managed Machines in the VCM Installation Guide.

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Hardware Requirements for Collector Machines

Your VCM Collector hardware requirements depend on the number of physical and virtual managed machines in your environment.

Use this information to determine how many machines you plan to manage. You can determine the individual hardware requirements to ensure a successful VCM installation.

Disk space requirements vary based on the following factors.

Number of machines from which you collect data

Type of data collected and filters used

Frequency of collections

Data retention

Determine the Size of Your Environment

VCM hardware requirements are recommended based on whether your environment contains 1–1000, 1000–2000, 2000–5000, or more managed machines. To determine the number of managed machines on which to base your collector size, consider the number of vCenter Server instances, Windows servers and workstations, UNIX or Linux machines, and virtual machines that you are licensing. Identify any other VCM components that you are licensing. To determine your total number of managed machines, enter data for your enterprise in the sizing worksheet.

In VCM, the term “managed machines” refers to the servers and workstations that VCM manages, and from which VCM collects data. If you use VCM for Microsoft Active Directory (AD), this definition includes AD objects that you plan to have in your environment in the next 12 to 24 months.

Use the formulas in the worksheets to determine how your AD objects will increase your managed machine count and affect your final sizing requirements. After you complete the worksheet and determined the number of managed machines, size your Collector machine. Use the blank worksheet to record the managed machines in your environment.

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

Table 2–1. Sizing Worksheet

Product Description Anticipated Number o f Managed

VCM Windows Servers

ESXi Servers

Guest Virtual Machines

Linux or UNIX

Mac

Windows Workstations

Machin es in th e Next 12-24 Months

VCM for AD

Divide total number of AD objects by 100 to determine the approximate "machine count" for your AD environment.

Total Managed Machines: _______

In the following example, an enterprise environment contains machines and objects that represent 1377 managed machines, which places it in the 1000–2000 managed machines category.

Table 2–2.

Example of Sizing Worksheet with Sample Data

Product Description

Anticipat ed Number o f Managed Machin es in th e Next 12-24 Months

VCM Windows Servers 92

vSphere/ESX/ESXi Servers 5

Virtual Machines (VM) 50

Linux or UNIX 100

Mac 100

Windows Workstations 920

VCM for AD

Divide total number of AD objects by 100 to determine the approximate "machine count" for your AD environment.

10,000 AD Objects/100 = 100 managed

machines to accommodate VCM for

Total Managed Machines: 1377

Identify Your Specific Hardware Requirements

Size your VCM Collector and database based on the requirements for managed vCenter Server instances and the number of machines managed by VCM.

Database Sizing for Managed vCenter Server Instances

Use the following requirements to size your SQLServer database depending on the number of hosts and guests per vCenter Server managed by VCM. These requirements are in addition to the base VCM storage requirements, and are based on an estimated 10% data change per day times 15 days of data retention.

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Hard ware Requirements for Collector Machines

Table 2–3. VCMDatabase Sizing per vCenter Server Instance

Host s Guests Est. Daily Ch ange Data Retent ion in Days Data Size

25 250 10% 15 3GB

50 500 10% 15 6GB

250 2500 10% 15 30GB

The best practice in production environments is to have the Managing Agent process requests for a single vCenter Server. Dedicate one Managing Agent machine for each vCenter Server. In a single vCenter Server instance environment, the VCM Collector can be the Managing Agent.

A single Managing Agent can manage multiple vCenter Server instances depending on your collection schedules and when potential job latency is not an issue, such as when a single Managing Agent must process multiple requests serially. A single Managing Agent can manage multiple vCenter Server instances as long as only one vCenter Server is collected at a time.

When job latency is not a problem, and depending on your collection schedules, you might dedicate a single Managing Agent for every five vCenter Server instances or 100 hosts. You could dedicate one Managing Agent to a vCenter Server that manages 100 hosts, or a collection of four vCenter Server instances that each manage 10 hosts could share a Managing Agent.

Hardware and Disk Requirements By Number of Managed Machines

Use the Minimum Hardware Requirements and Minimum Disk Configuration Requirements tables to determine your hardware and disk configuration requirements for a single-tier server installation.

Use the total number of managed machines from the Sizing Worksheet to locate your environment size (1–1000, 1000–2000, 2000–5000, or more). If you have more than 5000 machines in your environment, contact VMware Technical Support to help you determine your hardware requirements.

If you run SQLServer on a virtual machine, see Microsoft SQL Server on VMware Best Practices Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/sql_server_best_practices_guide.pdf. If you run SQL Server in a Hyper-

V environment, see Best Practices and Performance Considerations for Running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment on the Microsoft Web site.

The requirements listed in the following tables are based on the following assumptions.

Daily VCM collections using the default filter set with additional Microsoft AD security descriptors collected using VCM for AD.

15 days retention of change data.

Simple recovery mode only.

Daily VCM Patching collections.

No applications other than VCM are running on your server.

VCM for AD collections cause the TempDB database to grow significantly. If you have a fully populated Microsoft Active Directory and plan to perform frequent AD collections, increase your hardware requirements.

Longer data retention, additional WMI, registry filters, and custom information collections also add to the requirements.

The following table provides hardware requirements for a single-tier server installation of VCM. If you are installing VCM in a two-tier or three-tier environment, approximate sizing requirements are provided in the VMware Knowledge Base. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2033894.

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Table 2–4. Minimum Hardware Requirements by Number of Managed Machines for Single-Tier Server Installations

Requ irements Number of VCM Manag ed Machines

1–1000 1000–2000 2000+

Processors Dual Xeon or single Dual

Core 2GHz minimum

Quad Xeon or two Dual Core 2GHz minimum

Eight-way Xeon or four Dual Core 2GHz minimum

RAM 8GB+ minimum 12GB+ minimum 16GB+ minimum

Number of

2 3 4 Separate Disk Channels

The space allocations in the following table do not include space for backups. Allocate backup space that is equal to the size of the VCM data for a single full backup, or larger to keep multiple partial backups.

Table 2–5. Minimum Disk Configuration Requirements by Number of Managed Machines

Number of VCM Manag ed Machin es

RAID Channel and RAID Level Partitions Usable

Space

1–500 Channel 0 – RAID 1 OS 36GB

Collector Data

36GB

Files

TempDB 36GB

SQL Log Files 28GB

Channel 1 – RAID 0+1 (recommended) or

SQL Data Files 56GB

RAID 10

501–1000 Channel 0 – RAID 1 OS 36GB

Collector Data

36GB

Files

Channel 1 – RAID 1 TempDB 56GB

SQL Log Files 56GB

Channel 2 – RAID 0+1 (recommended) or

SQL Data Files 113GB

RAID10

1001–2000 Channel 0 – RAID 1 OS 36GB

Collector Data

54GB

Files

Channel 1 – RAID 1 TempDB 113GB

Channel 2 – RAID 1 SQL Log Files 113GB

Channel 3 – RAID 0+1 (recommended) or

SQLData Files 227GB

RAID 10

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Software and Operating System Requirements for Collector Machines

Your VCM environment software configuration must meet the requirements to install VCM 5.6. The software requirements are based on the number of managed machines in your environment and your installation configuration.

The software requirements are organized into steps. You must perform the steps in the order specified to ensure a successful VCM installation.

All software requirements apply to the server in your single-tier installation. For more information about installation configurations, see "VCM Installation Configurations" on page 18.

Sizing Impacts on Software Requirements

Use the total number of managed machines that you identified in "Determine the Size of Your

Environment" on page 12 to locate your environment size (1–1000, 1000–2000, 2000–5000, or more). If you

have more than 5000 machines in your environment, contact VMware Technical Support for your specific requirements.

VCM supports Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2008 R2.

CAUTION If your Windows machine has an evaluation version of SQLServer StandardEdition or

Enterprise Edition, use it only for evaluation purposes. Do not use an evaluation version in a production environment, because it is not officially supported for production.

Table 3–1. Minimum Software Requirements by Number of VCM Managed Machines

Soft ware Compo nent

Operating System

SQL Version SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard

SSRS Version SQL Server 2008 Reporting

Number of Manag ed Machines

1–1000 1000–2000 2000–5000

Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2

Edition (64-bit)

Services

SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition (64-bit)

SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Software Installation and Configuration Overview

VCM supports the Collector running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Complete the preparatory steps to prepare your Windows Server 2008 R2 machine for a successful VCM installation. When you use VCM Installation Manager to install VCM, the system checks will run without error, indicating that you have met all of the requirements to install VCM.

Enterprise Edition SQL Server 2008 R2

Standard Edition (64-bit) SQL Server 2008 Reporting

Services

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

VCM supports several installation configurations including single-tier, two-tier, and three-tier. You use Installation Manager to install VCM in these configurations.See "Preparing for Installation" on page 18.

To understand the requirements to upgrade or migrate your environment to the latest version of VCM, see "VCM Upgrades and Migrations" on page 17.

VCM Upgrades and Migrations

To upgrade your version of VCM to the current version, you must have VCM 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.4, or 5.4.1. To migrate your environment to the current version of VCM, you must have version 4.11.1 or later installed and running.

CAUTION VCM 5.6 does not include the Patch Administrator role. If you previously assigned the

Patch Administrator role to a user, either reassign a different role to the user or let the user know that the role no longer exists.

What to do next

To upgrade VCM, see the upgrade and migration examples at "Upgrading or Migrating VCM" on page

128.

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Preparing for Installation

Prepare your environment for a VCMinstallation by performing the prerequisites to include hardware, software, and physical and virtual machines before you install VCM components and tools.

VCM Installation Configurations

VCM supports several installation configurations including single-tier, two-tier, and three-tier. Use Installation Manager to install VCM in these configurations.

Single-Tier Server Installation

In a single-tier server installation, the VCM database server, Web server, and the VCM Collector components reside on a single Windows Server 2008 R2 machine, which is referred to as the VCM Collector. The installation installs all of the core VCM components, including the databases, console, and services. This configuration enables integrated security by default.

Two-Tier Split Installation

In a two-tier split installation, the VCM database resides on the Windows Server 2008 R2 database server machine, and the VCM Collector and Web components reside on the second Windows Server 2008 R2 machine.

Three-Tier Split Installation

In a three-tier split installation, the VCM databases, the Web applications, and the VCM Collector components reside on three different Windows Server 2008 R2 machines.

To perform the prerequisite steps for VCM installation, see "System Prerequisites to Install VCM" on page

20.

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System Prerequisites to Install VCM

Perform the system prerequisites to prepare your physical or virtual machine for VCM installation. The prerequisites ensure that your machine meets the requirements for your environment to support a successful VCM installation.

After you perform the system prerequisites, during VCM installation the Installation Manager runs system checks on the database server, Web server, and VCM Collector machine in your installation configuration. These system checks verify that you have satisfied all of the prerequisites for a successful VCM installation. During the system checks, Foundation Checker verifies component-specific issues against VCM, captures common issues, and identifies any problems with the version of VCM being installed.

Foundation Checker might generate warnings, which you must review. In some cases, you might need to resolve the warnings before you install VCM, even though the warnings will not prevent you from starting the installation.

If Foundation Checker generates errors, you must resolve them before you install VCM. For more information about Foundation Checker, see the VCM Foundation Checker User's Guide.

Use the following topics to verify your system requirements.

Verify that your environment meets the security requirements. See the VCM Security Guide.

"Establish Local Administration Rights" on page 21

Verify that the user account of the person who performs the VCM installation, upgrade, or migration has all of the required rights.

"Verify Browser Compatibility" on page 22

Verify that the target VCM Collector machine, and any other machines that will access the VCM Web console interface on the VCM Collector, have a compatible Web browser installed.

"Verify the Default Network Authority Account" on page 22

Define the network authority account in the Local Administrators group on the Collector machine before you install VCM. The network authority account must be a domain account. VCM uses the default network authority account to collect data from Windows Agent machines.

"Specify the Collector Services Account" on page 23

Specify the Collector Service account to use during VCM installation. The account can be a system administrator account and must exist in the Local Administrators group on the Collector machine. The account must not be the Local System account.

"Verify the VMware Application Services Account" on page 23

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Verify that the VMware Application Services Account is a domain user.

"Verify the VCM Agent is Not Installed" on page 24

The target Windows machine must not have a VCM Agent installed before you install VCM. If an Agent is installed, you must uninstall the Agent for VCM to install.

"Verify the SQLXML Version" on page 25

SQLXML provides client-side XML functionality and enhancements to existing SQL features. SQLXML

4.0 SP1 is installed with SQL Server 2008 R2. Verify that the correct version is installed.

Establish Local Administration Rights

Verify that the user account of the person who performs the VCM installation, upgrade, or migration has all of the required rights.

The following rights are required.

System administrator on the machines on which the installation or upgrade is performed.

System administrator on the database instance to be used.

Member of a domain.

The installing user account should not be the account used for VCM services, because the login of the VCM service account is disabled during installation.

After installation, do not create a VCM user that uses the SQL Server services account credentials.

What to do next

Verify the compatibility of your browser. See "Verify Browser Compatibility" on page 22.

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Verify Browser Compatibility

Verify that the target VCM Collector machine, and any other machines that will access the VCM Web console interface on the VCM Collector, have a compatible Web browser installed.

VCM supports the following browsers.

Internet Explorer version 8 and 9.

Internet Explorer version 10 in compatibility mode.

Mozilla Firefox version 6.0 or later with the Internet Explorer IE Tab add-on. This add-on requires Internet Explorer 6.0 to be installed on the machine.

What to do next

Verify the default Network Authority account. See "Verify the Default Network Authority Account" on

page 22.

Verify the Default Network Authority Account

System Prerequisites to Install VCM

You specify the default network authority account during VCM installation. The default network authority account can be a system administrator account, such as a Domain Admin in the Local Admin Group.

It is acceptable, but not preferred, to use the same account for the Application services account, Collector service account, VCM Remote account, and the Tomcat Services account. If you use a single account, the permissions required for the Collector service account will be sufficient. The account must be a local administrator, should not be a domain administrator, has bulk-insert permissions in SQL, and is a dbo of the VCM databases. In general, the Default Network Authority should be a different account, possibly a Domain Administrator with rights on more systems in the environment.

Procedu re

1. On the Collector, right-click Computer and select Manage to open Server Manager.

2. Expand Configuration, expand Local Users and Groups, and click Groups.

3. Double-click Administrators and verify that the network authority account is listed as a member of the

Administrators group.

If the user or administrator’s group is not listed, add the user or group to the list. Verify that the user has Windows administrator rights issued by the network administrator.

To change the network authority account after installing VCM, click Administration and select Settings > Network Authority.

What to do next

Keep Server Manager open to specify the Collector Services account. See "Specify the Collector Services

Account" on page 23.

Verify the SQL Server Service Account

The SQL Server service account, under which the service for the SQL Server instance runs to manage the VCM databases, must be LocalSystem or an account that has local administrative privileges.

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CAUTION Do not use Network Service for the SQL Server service account. If you use the Network

Service account for your SQL Server instance, VCM installation could fail. Foundation Checker does not check for this account during VCM installation.

The LocalSystem account, NT AUTHORITY\System, has unrestricted access to all local system resources. This account is a member of the Windows Administrators group on the local machine.

If the NT AUTHORITY\System account does not have access to the VCM installation binary files, the installation results in an access denied error. This situation is not common, but could occur if the installation files are copied to or extracted in a user's home directory. In this case, you must grant access to the NT AUTHORITY\System account from the installation source directory, then run the installation again. A user or user’s group has access when they have full control of the file or folder.

Specify the Collector Services Account

Logging in to VCM using a service account can lead to unexpected or inconsistent behavior. Services that use the same account as a logged in user might modify the logged in user's current role or the machine group, or log the user out of the system.

If the password for the account changes, you must change the password in the Services Management console and the Component Services DCOM Config console.

Procedu re

1. In Server Manager, verify that the Groups menu is open.

If not, expand Configuration, expand Local Users and Groups, and click Groups.

2. Double-click Administrators and verify that the account used for Collector Services is listed as a

member of the Administrators group.

If the user or administrator’s group is not listed, to ensure that the user has Windows administrator rights issued by the network administrator, add the user or group to the list.

What to do next

Keep Server Manager open to specify the VCM Application Services account in Server Manager. See

"Verify the VMware Application Services Account" on page 23.

Verify the VMware Application Services Account

Verify that the VMware Application Services Account is a domain user.

IMPORTANT Never use this account as a VCM login or for any other purpose. Logging in to VCM using a

service account can lead to unexpected or inconsistent behavior. Services that use the same account as a logged in user might modify the logged in user's current role or the machine group, or log the user out of the system.

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Procedu re

1. In Server Manager, verify that the Groups menu is open.

If not, expand Configuration, expand Local Users and Groups, and click Groups.

2. Double-click Administrators and verify that the application services account is listed as a member of

the Administrators group.

If the user or administrator’s group is not listed, add the user or group to the list. Ensure that the user has Windows administrator rights issued by the network administrator.

What to do next

Verify that the VCM Agent is not installed on the Collector machine. See "Verify the VCM Agent is Not

Installed" on page 24.

Verify the VCM Agent is Not Installed

The VCM Collector installation includes an updated Agent. The target Windows machine must not have a VCM Agent installed before you install VCM. If an Agent is installed, you must uninstall the Agent for VCM to install.

Procedu re

System Prerequisites to Install VCM

1. To determine whether a VCM Agent is installed on the Windows machine, verify whether the following folder exists.

%windir%\CMAgent

The %windir% environment variable specifies the directory where Windows is installed. This folder is the default location. The Agent installation directory is accessible in the registry at the following location.

HKLM\Software\Configuresoft\ECM\4.0\Common\PathsRootDir

2. If a VCM Agent is installed, remove the Agent from the target Windows machine.

a. If a working VCM Collector exists, use the VCM Web console to unlicense this machine and

remove the VCM Agent.

b. If a working VCM Collector does not exist, uninstall the Agent manually.

3. To uninstall the Agent manually, determine if the Agent was installed using the MSI installer.

a. Search for the string CMAgent under the following registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_

MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

If an Uninstall registry subkey exists that has a GUID-named key and reference to the VCM Agent, such as {7C51E2CA-C932-44EF-8B77-3C03356A24CC}, the VCM Agent was installed using the MSI Installer.

b. Examine the uninstall data to confirm that this is the VCM Agent.

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c. Open the setting UninstallString and copy the value.

An example value is as follows.

MsiExec.exe /X{7C51E2CA-C932-44EF-8B77-3C03356A24CC}

d. If an Uninstall GUIDregistry key that references the VCM Agent does not exist, the Agent was

installed using the manual installer.

vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

4. Uninstall the VCM Agent.

a. If the Agent was installed using the MSI installer, to uninstall the Agent click Start and click Run to

execute the command line using the UninstallString registry value.

An example value is as follows.

MsiExec.exe /X{7C51E2CA-C932-44EF-8B77-3C03356A24CC}.

b. If the Agent was installed using the manual installer, run the following command to uninstall the

Agent.

%windir%\CMAgent\Uninstall\Packages\CMAgentInstall\UnCMAgentInstall.exe /S

INSTALL.LOG

What to do next

Verify that the correct version of SQLXML is installed. See "Verify the SQLXML Version" on page 25.

Verify the SQLXML Version

SQLXML provides client-side XML functionality and enhancements to existing SQL features. SQLXML 4.0 SP1 is installed with SQL Server 2008 R2. Verify that the correct version is installed.

Procedu re

1. Click Start and click Control Panel.

2. Click Programs and select Programs and Features.

3. Verify that SQLXML 4.0 SP1 appears in the list of installed programs.

4. If SQLXML 4.0 SP1 does not appear, install it from the Microsoft Download Center.

What to do next

If you will install VCM on a virtual machine, configure the disk, CPU, and memory resources. See

"Configure Resources to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine" on page 26.

Understand the use of secure communications certificates and be prepared to specify the certificates during VCM installation. See Secure Communications Certificates in the VCM Installation Guide.

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Configure Resources to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine

To install VCM on a virtual machine, you must prepare the virtual machine to be used as a VCM Collector. Because VCM can place heavy workloads on the database, you must understand your environment workloads to determine the resource requirements.

For the VCM Collector to operate properly on a virtual machine, the virtual machine must satisfy several prerequisites to run SQL Server on a VMware virtual machine.You should provision the VCM virtual machine similar to a high throughput OLTP database application.

Use these guidelines to install VCM in development, test, or IT environments. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

IMPORTANT Do not install VCM on an ESX server that has over-allocated resources.

Prerequisit es

Follow the requirements for physical hardware.See the VCM Installation Guide.

Perform the system prerequisite tasks. See the VCM Installation Guide.

Follow the best practices to install SQLServer. See the Microsoft SQL Server on VMware Best Practices Guide available on the VMware Web site at http://www.vmware.com.

Procedu re

1. "Configure the Disk to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine" on page 27

Configure the disk for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

2. "Configure the CPU to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine" on page 27

Configure the CPU for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

3. "Configure the Memory to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine" on page 28

Allocate the memory for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

What to do next

Familiarize yourself with the certificate names in advance so that you can select them during installation. See the VCM Installation Guide.

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

Configure the Disk to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine

Configure the disk for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

Prerequisit es

Prepare the virtual machine to be used as a VCM Collector. See "Configure Resources to Install VCM

on a Virtual Machine" on page 26.

Keep the spindle count consistent and allocate a sufficient number of spindles to the database files when you migrate VCM from a physical machine to a virtual machine.

Place the database data files on multiple logical unit numbers (LUNs).

Create a TEMPDB data file for each virtual CPU that is allocated to the VCM Collector.

Use paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) controllers for the database disks to provide greater throughput and lower CPU utilization, which improves VCM performance.

Maintain a 1:1 mapping between the number of virtual machines and the number of LUNs on a single ESX host to avoid disk I/O contention.

Procedu re

1. Start vCenter Server.

2. Select your virtual machine.

3. Click the Resource Allocation tab.

4. In the CPU pane, click Edit.

5. In the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, click the Resources tab.

6. In the Resource Allocation pane, click Disk and update the disk resource allocation to meet the needs of your environment.

7. Click OK.

What to do next

Configure the CPUfor the virtual machine. See "Configure the CPU to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine"

on page 27.

Configure the CPU to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine

Configure the CPU for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

Prerequisit es

Prepare the virtual machine to be used as a VCM Collector. See "Configure Resources to Install VCM

on a Virtual Machine" on page 26.

Test the workload in your planned virtualized environment to verify that the physical CPU resources on the ESX host adequately meet the needs of guest virtual machines.

Provision multiple virtual CPUs only if the anticipated workload will use them. Over-provisioning might result in higher virtualization overhead.

Install the latest version of VMware Tools on the guest operating system.

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Configure Resources to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine

Procedu re

1. Start vCenter Server.

2. Select your virtual machine.

3. Click the Resource Allocation tab.

4. In the CPU pane, click Edit.

5. In the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, click the Resources tab.

6. In the Resource Allocation pane, click CPU and change the CPU resource allocation.

7. Click OK.

What to do next

Configure the memory for the virtual machine. See "Configure the Memory to Install VCM on a Virtual

Machine" on page 28.

Configure the Memory to Install VCM on a Virtual Machine

Allocate the memory for the virtual machine. For large scale environments, you might need to alter the requirements.

Prerequisit es

Prepare the virtual machine to be used as a VCM Collector. See "Configure Resources to Install VCM

on a Virtual Machine" on page 26.

Verify that the ESX host has sufficient cumulative physical memory resources to meet the needs of the guest virtual machines. Do not install VCM on an ESX server that has over allocated resources.

On the ESX host, enable memory page sharing and memory ballooning to optimize memory.

To reduce or avoid disk I/O, increase the database buffer cache.

Procedu re

1. Start vCenter Server.

2. Select your virtual machine.

3. Click the Resource Allocation tab.

4. In the Memory pane, click Edit.

5. In the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, click the Resources tab.

6. In the Resource Allocation pane, click Memory and change the memory resource allocation.

7. Click OK.

What to do next

Prepare your single-tier, two-tier, or three-tier installation configuration. See "Single-Tier Server

Installation" on page 34, "Two-Tier Split Installation" on page 60, or "Three-Tier Split Installation" on page

86.

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vCenter Configuration Manager Advanced Installation Guide

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Secure Communications Certificates

During VCM installation, specify the Collector and Enterprise certificates. VCM uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to secure all UNIX Agents and all Windows Agents using HTTP, and TLS uses certificates to authenticate the Collector and Agents to each other.

If you use your own certificates, you must familiarize yourself with the certificate names in advance so that you can select them during installation.

A valid Collector certificate must have the following attributes.

Located in the local machine personal certificate store.

Valid for Server Authentication. If any Enhanced Key Usage extension or property is present, it must include the Server Authentication OID 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1. If the Key Usage extension is present, it must include DIGITAL_SIGNATURE.

Active, and not expired.

If you do not want to use your own certificates, you can have Installation Manager generate the Collector and Enterprise certificates for you, select the Generate option during the installation.

If you install more than one Collector that will communicate with the same Agents, or if you plan to replace or renew your certificates, follow the special considerations to generate and select certificates in VCM Installation Manager. See the VCM Security Guide.

Authenticating the Server to the Client

VCM supports Server Authentication to authenticate the server to the client. In VCM environments where TLS is used, VCM Agents verify the identity of the Collectors by verifying the certificates. If you use your own certificates, you must familiarize yourself with the certificate names in advance so that you can select them during installation.

The server typically authenticates a client or user by requiring information such as a user name and password. When Server Authentication is used, the client or user verifies that the server is valid. To accomplish this verification, the server provides a certificate issued by a trusted authority, such as Verisign. If your client Web browser has the Verisign Certified Authority certificate in its trusted store, the Web browser can trust that the server is actually the Web site you access.

To guarantee the identity of servers and clients, TLS uses certificates that are managed by a public key infrastructure (PKI). A certificate is a package that contains a public key, information that identifies the owner and source of that key, and one or more certifications (signatures) to verify that the package is authentic. To sign a certificate, an issuer adds information about itself to the information that is already contained in the certificate request. The public key and identifying information are hashed and signed using the private key of the issuer’s certificate.

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