Bist Virtual

Installing vCenter on Windows 2008 R2 is ofcourse something we are going todo rather often. Although this works perfectly there are some things that you should know and do in advance.

• We need the .NET Framework 3.5.1.

• We also need a 32-bit Database Source Name (DSN)/ODBC connection pointing to the vCenter database.

.NET Framework 3.5.1

To install the .NET Framework 3.5.1 on Windows Server 2008 R2, follow these steps:

1. Open Server Manager.

2. Select the Features navigation item.

3. On the Feature Summary page, click Add Features.

4. When you get to the Select Features page of the wizard, expand the .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features option.

5. Select the .NET Framework 3.5.1 item. (Do not choose to install both the .NET Framework 3.5.1 and WCF Activation together — doing so will force the installation of IIS 7.5, which will interfere with vCenter’s Web services.) Click the Next button.

6. On the Confirm Installation Selections page, click the Install button to complete the process.

32-bit DSN to the vCenter database

When you create a DSN on an out-of-the-box Windows Server 2008 R2 system, the DSN is created as a 64-bit object, whereas the vCenter installer will only be looking for 32-bit DSNs. In order to create a 32-bit DSN on your 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 server, you need to download and install the SQL Server Native Client on your server and use the new client’s utilities to create the DSN.

The SQL Server Native Client is included as a part of the SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack. From the Feature Pack download page, download the X64 package under the SQL Server 2005 Native Client option. Although you’re installing the 64-bit package, this is only because you’re installing the tool to a 64-bit operating system; the package includes a method to create 32-bit DSNs. Once you download the package, install it.

Next, go to Start and, in the Search box, type odbcad32. Select the odbcad32 option under the Programs heading to run this utility.

In this utility, create a System DSN that points to your vCenter database. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the System DSN tab.

2. Click the Add button.

3. On the first page of the Create New Data Source wizard, choose SQL Native Client.

4. When prompted, provide a name and description of the new System DSN and indicate on which SQL Server the vCenter database resides.

5. On the authentication page, choose the authentication method most appropriate for your use. If you use SQL Server authentication, use the same login ID and password that you created as per the VMware documentation.

6. When prompted, test the data source to make sure it’s set up properly.

With these two items in place, your vCenter installation should proceed without interruption. The true test will come when you get to the installation step that asks you to provide the 32-bit DSN that you want to use for the vCenter database. If you’ve set the DSN up properly that DSN will be available to you, if it’s not set up properly, make sure that you didn’t accidentally create a 64-bit DSN.