vCenter 7.0 Installation

Hello Friends, This article will help you to install & configure VMware vSphere 7.0 environment and test features like vMotion, HA & DRS. Like my other posts, even this post will focus on practical instead of theory. Detailed VMware official information can be found here.

VMware vSphere 7.0 – ESXi Installation Guide
VMware vSphere 7.0 – vCenter Installation Guide

With that, lets get started.

Since it’s a base vSphere setup, I have taken pictures of it while doing the configuration and converted into a video. There is no explanation in this video. I have marked my comments in the pic wherever necessary.

These videos are for newbies, who has just started learning VMware, have little understanding of VMware vSphere product and wants to see configuration in GUI. I highly recommend checking VMware documentation side by side. The video is divided into multiple parts due to the restrictions of number of images. I will be happy answer your questions. You can change the speed of the video, so that it plays faster and change resolution to 720 for better image quality. Please leave your questions in comments section at the end of this blog.

I have configured the environment on one single physical ESXi server. The entire setup is nested. Let me explain the setup.

Physical ESXi has following VM’s.

Domain Controller – For Authentication
JumpBox – To access the nested environment.
VyOS1 – Virtual router which acts as a TOR.
VyOS2 – 2^nd TOR.

The exact setup can be created on VMware Workstation too without using TOR. You will have to keep same network for all portgroups. Check my previous blog for physical ESXi and TOR setup.

https://virtualrove.com/2020/04/30/vyos-virtual-router/

Hers is the sequence of the setup which is explained in the video.

Create 4 new ESXi hosts (as a VM on physical host).
Install & Configure ESXi 7.0 hypervisor.
Connect to 1^st ESXi from JumpBox and configure necessary settings.
Convert HDD of 1^st ESXi to SSD for 1 node VSAN configuration (this is for initial setup only).
Download and Deploy vCenter 7.0 on 1^st ESXi host.
Connect to vCenter rename Datacenter and Cluster names.
Add remaining 3 ESXi hosts to the cluster.
Create new VDS and add all 4 hosts to it. Delete standard switch.
Create vMotion and VSAN VMkernel (vmk) ports.
Configure VSAN.
Test vMotion.
Enable HA and DRS on the cluster.
The End