Installing vCenter/Virtual Center with SQL Server 2005

In this KB, we will show you how to configure VMware's vCenter 2.5 with SQL Server 2005.  vCenter (formally known as Virtual Center) provides the management interface for ESX hosts and clusters.  ESX hosts can be managed without vCenter however many of the enterprise features of VMware are lost without vCenter.  Some of the features available through vCenter include clustering, DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduling), HA (High Availablity), vMotion and much much more!  That said, lets jump right into it and start configuring our first vCenter instance!

vCenter Prerequisite

vCenter can be installed on either physical or virtual machines.  I prefer installation of vCenter on virtual machines for all the obvious benefits that come with virtualization.  However, be aware that should your ESX hosts/cluster crash or have a complete power loss, restoration efforts can be a bit more tricky since some of the enterprise features of VMware will be lost until the vCenter instance is brought back online.

vCenter 2.5 only supports Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 running in 32bit.  So whether you choose a physical or virtual machine to install vCenter on, make sure your OS is 32bit (vCenter will not allow you to install on 64bit platforms.)

A database is also required for vCenter 2.5.  Supported database types include MSDE, Oracle, SQL Server and more.  If you are following along with our KB, we will be using SQL Server 2005.

Note: During the vCenter installation, you will be given the chance to install a SQL Express instance should an enterprise SQL Server instance not be available.  SQL Express has many limitations and is not recommended for larger enterprises.  SQL Express may be adequate for evaluation and small enterprise deployments, but generally recommend against for large production implementations.

The database used for vCenter can be installed on a dedicated host, or the same host depending on the size of your environment.  For scalability, I recommend installing vCenter and SQL Server on separate hosts unless your running a very small environment and know that it will never grow.  The following diagram illustrates a isolated installation where the database server and vCenter are installed on seperate hosts (we will be following this model for our example.)

Finally, vCenter requires the server vCenter to be installed on to be a member of an active directory domain.  vCenter uses active directory credentials for authentication.  By default, the domain administrator account and/or local administrator will be the only users with access to the vCenter console, but additional users and/or groups can be configured post installation.

With that said, lets begin the installation starting with SQL Server...

vCenter / Virtual Center SQL Server 2005 Installation

We will begin our install with SQL Server 2005.  Managing the ESX hosts directly (with the VMware Infrastruce Client), we created a virtual machine that will be used for our SQL Server instance and loaded/patched it with Windows Server 2003 (not shown.)  We are now ready to begin installing SQL Server 2005 on this server:

1. From the SQL Server Installation screen, select the "Server components, tools, Book Online, and samples" option to being the install
   
   
   
   
2. Accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
3. After the prerequisites have been meet, click "Next"
   
   
   
   
4. Click "Next" from the Welcome screen
   
   
   
   
5. Once the System Checks have completed, click "Next"
   
   
   
   
6. Enter the appropriate name and company information in the provided blanks and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
7. On the components install screen, select the "SQL Server Database Services" option and then click "Next"
   
   
   
   
8. Leave the instance name set to the default and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
9. Select the "Use the built-in System account" option leaving the Local system account selected.  Also select the "SQL Server" option to ensure SQL Server is started at the completion of installation.
   
   
   
   
10. Select "Mixed Mode" authentication and provide the 'sa' (SQL Administrator) password in the space provided.
    
    
    
    Note: SQL Server must be configured with SQL/local authentication.  vCenter does not support Windows authentication with SQL Server
    
    
11. Leave the defaults selected on the collation screen and click "Next"
    
    
    
    
12. Click "Next" on the Error and Usage reporting settings screen
    
    
    
    
13. Click "Install" to begin the installation
    
    
    
    
14. Click "Next" after all the components have been installed successfully
    
    
    
    
15. Click "Finish" to complete the installation
    
    
    
    
16. Open system services window
    
    
    
    
17. Locate the "SQL Server Agent" service.  Right click on the service name and select "Properties"
    
    
    
    
18. On the SQL Server Agent properties screen, ensure the Startup type is set to "Automatic" and the service is "Started"
    
    
    

Configuring SQL Server for vCenter

Continuing with our configuration of vCenter / Virtual Center and SQL Server 2005, its now time to configure the database.  Microsoft provides a free tool called SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) to help manage SQL Server.  Download and install SSMS on the host you intend to install vCenter on.

In the following section, we will use SSMS to create a new database and set the appropriate permissions to allow vCenter to interface with SQL Server.  Lets begin!

1. Using SSMS, login to our newly created SQL Server instance
   
   
   
   
2. Create a new login for vCenter in order to access the database.  Expand the Security folder and right click on Login selecting the "New Login" option
   
   
   
   
3. Provide a login name and password for vCenter removing the "Enforce password expiration" option
   
   
   
   
4. On the Server Roles screen, select the "sysadmin" security privilege and click "OK"
   
   
   
   
5. From the Object explorer window, right click on the "Databases" folder and select "New Database"
   
   
   
   
6. On the New Database window, provide a name for the database and set the Owner to the user created from step #3 above
   
   
   
   
7. From the Options page, change the Recovery model to "Simple" and click "OK"
   
   
   
   
8. Locate the user created from step #3 above, and click properties
   
   
   
   
9. On the Login Properties window, change the users default database to the database created from step #6 above
   
   
   

Your SQL database is now configured for vCenter!  We will now continue with the configuration installing the SQL Native Client Driver on the vCenter host.

SQL Native Client Driver Install

Continuing our install, we now need to install the SQL Native Client Driver on the vCenter host.  When using vCenter/Virtual Center with SQL Server 2005, the ODBC source vCenter uses must be created with the SQL Native Client driver (the SQL driver provided with Windows will not work.)  The SQL Native Client driver can be found on the SQL Server 2005 installation media.

In the following section, we will install the SQL Native Client driver on the vCenter server.  Let's begin:

1. On the SQL Server Install screen, select the "Run the SQL Native Client Installation Wizard" option
   
   
   
   
2. Click "Next" on the copyright notice screen
   
   
   
   
3. Accept the license agreement and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
4. Provide the appropriate name and organization and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
5. Leave the defaults selected on the feature selection screen and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
6. Click "Install" to begin the installation on the vCenter server
   
   
   
   
7. Click "Finish" to complete the install
   
   

Creating a ODBC Connection for vCenter

Now that we have the SQL Native Client Driver installed on the vCenter server, we now need to configure a system DNS entry for vCenter to use:

1. Open the Control Panel
   
   
   
   
2. Open Administrative Tools
   
   
   
   
3. Open Data Sources (ODBC)
   
   
   
   
4. Click the System DSN tab and click the "Add" button
   
   
   
   
5. Select the "SQL Native Client" driver and click "Finish"
   
   
   
   
6. Provide a Name for the driver (you will reference this name during the vCenter install) and provide the hostname/IP of the SQL Server instance you created in the previous section in the Server field
   
   
   
   
7. Select the "SQL Server authentication" type and provide the login and password created from the "Configuring SQL Server for vCenter" section
   
   
   
   
8. Change the default database to the database created in the "Configuring SQL Server for vCenter" section
   
   
   
   
9. Click "Finish" to complete the setup
   
   
   
   
10. Click the "Test Data Source" button to validate the settings you provided
    
    
    
    
11. Assuming the test completed successfully, click the "OK" button
    
    
    
    
12. Click "OK" to complete the test
    
    
    
    
13. Confirm the DSN is present and click "OK"
    
    

vCenter Installation

We are now ready to install vCenter.  We will install our vCenter instance using a license file.  However, if you have not yet purchased a license for vCenter or want to evaluate vCenter, you will be given the chance to install vCenter using a evaluation license that will expire after 60 days.  If you decide to run on an evaluation license, just make sure you remember to either purchase or extend your license prior to the expiration date or you will lose management of your ESX hosts/clusters via vCenter.  That said, lets get to the install!

1. On the Welcome screen, click "Next" to continue
   
   
   
   
2. Click "Next" on the Introduction screen to continue
   
   
   
   
3. Accept the EULA and click "Next" to continue
   
   
   
   
4. Provide the appropriate name and company information on the customer information screen click "Next" when complete
   
   
   
   
5. Select the "Custom" install type and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
6. Select the "Use an existing database server" entering the DSN information you configured in the "Creating a ODBC Connection for vCenter" section
   
   
   
   
7. Click "OK" on the informational message about SQL Server Agent (we already configured SQL Server Agent to run in the earlier section of this KB)
   
   
   
   
8. If you have a license, un-check the evaluate option and browse to the location of your license file clicking "Next" once complete.  If you are going to evaluate vCenter, leave the evaluate option checked and click "Next" to continue.
   
   
   
   
9. Leave the defaults set on the port settings page and click "Next"
   
   
   
   
10. Leave the default set on the destination folder selection and click "Next"
    
    
    
    
11. Click "Install" on the ready to install screen
    
    
    
    
12. Click "Finish" to complete the installation
    
    
    
    

Nice work!  You can now begin managing your ESX servers/clusters using vCenter!  Just point your VMware Infrastructure Client at the IP address or hostname of your vCenter server and enter either the domain or local administrator username and password.  Enjoy!

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Anonymous |04/11/2009 08:06:43 thank you very much, it saved me ton of time. Reply | Quote

Anonymous |04/11/2009 09:47:51 Thanks for this. I stumbled across this from Google and as above was a great help Reply | Quote

Jess |04/12/2009 10:31:19 I wasn't finding a lot of info on vmware's site about SQL Server 2005. Thanks! Reply | Quote

Anonymous |09/12/2009 12:06:02 this is the best document i found. I just don't understand why vmware themself dont have something like that Reply | Quote

Dutchy |28/01/2010 06:39:53 This is indeed a great document. Thanks for taking the time to write this and make it available to the public. Reply | Quote

YOUR A ROCK STAR |02/03/2010 01:03:18 DUDE you should be a publisher, clear, direct, nice screens, XLNT Reply | Quote

Curt  - Question - Configuring VMware vCenter with SQL Ser |02/03/2010 11:14:52 Great job! Will this SQL setup also work with vCenter 4 ? Reply | Quote

Anonymous |08/04/2010 05:14:39 yes i have just installed vCenter4 accoding this tutorial Reply | Quote

Anonymous |03/04/2010 09:40:46 hi, VCenter Server Service will not start, can you help Reply | Quote

fred  - consultant |03/05/2010 04:27:17 Great job, thank you for sharing your knowledges ! Reply | Quote

Dyonisius Visser |21/07/2010 10:14:52 Hi, I;m trying to set up SQL Server 2008 ENterprise for use with Vcenter 4.1, do you have some docs available on that? Thanks. Reply | Quote

Daniel Martinez  - Great vCenter Setup Guide |30/07/2010 10:52:11 Excellent resource. I am going to refer my students to this site. Reply | Quote

Ravikumar |07/08/2010 17:01:12 Outstanding article and thanks a ton for posting this info, I have been searching for this guide for a while and finally landed in your blog. Thanks Again. Reply | Quote

Rob Z  - sys Ad |22/10/2010 07:20:16 Awesome Document thank you for the help it provided! Reply | Quote

Anonymous |21/12/2010 12:15:18 great man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love you...... Reply | Quote

Anonymous |21/01/2011 03:18:19 Thanks for investing the time and effort; great explanations and screen shot examples! … The folks at VMware need to take notes, no doubt! "Love, Peace and Blessings" -- IPH Reply | Quote

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