Scripted Installation of vCenter

It took me a while to get scripted installations of vCenter5 working. Basically, I had to rip off an old script from the vCenter4 PDF to get it working.

UPDATE: Since the GA is now a PDF on scripted installs of vCenter - located here:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsp_50_vcserver_cmdline_install.pdf

VMware don't officially support scripted installations of vCenter or VUM. Although they do publish a PDF on how to do it. How queer. I think the policy is... Don't ring us about scripted vCenter/VUM installs, but if you manage to get a successful outcome - we will support that build.

It looks like this:

E:\vCenter-Server\VMware-vcserver.exe /q /s /w /L1033 /v" /qr WARNING_LEVEL=0 USERNAME=\"Luke Maverick\" COMPANYNAME=\"For and On Behalf of Corp, Inc\" LICENSEKEY=\"XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX\" DB_SERVER_TYPE=Custom DB_DSN=\"VMware vCenter\" DB_USERNAME=\"corp\vcdbuser-nyc\" DB_PASSWORD=\"Password1\" VPX_USES_SYSTEM_ACCOUNT=0 VPX_ACCOUNT=\"CORP\vcdbuser-nyc\" VPX_PASSWORD=\"Password1\" VPX_PASSWORD_VERIFY=\"Password1\" VCS_GROUP_TYPE=Single VCS_HTTPS_PORT=443 VCS_HTTP_PORT=80 VCS_HEARTBEAT_PORT=902 TC_HTTP_PORT=8080 TC_HTTPS_PORT=8443 VCS_ADAM_LDAP_PORT=389 VCS_ADAM_SSL_PORT=902

This is designed to do a script install where there is Windows Authentication occurring between vCenter & the MS SQL system. For it to work a couple of things need to be done.

1. add the installer user (in my case vcdbuser-nyc) to local administrators group
2. ensure the SQL Native Drivers are installed and that System DSN has been created
3. add the installer user (vcdbuser-nyc) to local policy to allow "Logon as a service" rights.

UPDATE:
I've noticed that if "Named Pipes" is not enabled on SQL this fails. That's a new one on me because in all previous releases (vCenter4, vCenter5 Beta/RC) it wasn't needed. To enable named pipes you need to crank up the "SQL Server Configuration Manager", expand the "SQL Server Network Configuration" node and enable it there. You need to restart the SQL service in order for the change to take affect.