SQL Server on Wojciech Marusiak IT Blog

VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 – Part 3

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 07:00:46 +0000

In third and last post VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 - Part3 I will cover vCenter Server installation.

Start vCenter Server service as Active Directory user

Before we will start vCenter Server 6 installation we have to do one more step. In second part of the post where we created vCenter Server database we decided to use Windows Authentication to SQL Server and in ODBC connection.

If you selected Windows Authentication you have to start service as domain user. In order to do that you have to enable Allow log on as a service. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do it. I wrote post about it already - How to create application user in Active Directory.

Below you will find screenshot when you will try to manage vCenter Server service as local account.

vCenter Server with embedded Platform Services Controller or with external one?

vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller

Embedded installations are recommended for standalone environments where there is only one vCenter Server and replication to another Platform Services Controller is not required. If there is a need to replicate with other Platform Services Controllers or there is more than one vCenter Single Sign-On enabled solution, deploying the Platform Services Controller(s) on separate virtual machine(s)—via external deployment—from vCenter Server is required.

Installing vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller has the following advantages:

The connection between vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller is not over the network, and vCenter Server is not prone to outages because of connectivity and name resolution issues between vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller.
If you install vCenter Server on Windows virtual machines or physical servers, you will need fewer Windows licenses.
You will have to manage fewer virtual machines or physical servers.
You do not need a load balancer to distribute the load across Platform Services Controller.

Installing with an embedded Platform Services Controller has the following disadvantages:

There is a Platform Services Controller for each product which might be more than required. This consumes more resources.
The model is suitable for small-scale environments.

vCenter Server with an External Platform Services Controller

vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller are deployed on separate virtual machine or physical server. The Platform Services Controller can be shared across several vCenter Server instances. You can install a Platform Services Controller and then install several vCenter Server instances and register them with the Platform Services Controller. You can then install another Platform Services Controller, configure it to replicate data with the first Platform Services Controller, and then install vCenter Server instances and register them with the second Platform Services Controller.

Installing vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller has the following advantages:

Less resources consumed by the combined services in the Platform Services Controllers enables a reduced footprint and reduced maintenance.
Your environment can consist of more vCenter Server instances.

Installing vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller has the following disadvantages:

The connection between vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller is over the network and is prone to connectivity and name resolution issues.
If you install vCenter Server on Windows virtual machines or physical servers, you need more Microsoft Windows licenses.
You must manage more virtual machines or physical servers.

vCenter Server installation

Start vCenter Server installer and click Install.
Click Next.
Accept terms of the license agreement.
With version 6 of VMware Suite it is required to install Platform Services Controller. I selected vCenter Server and Embedded Platform Services Controller. If you want to use this deployment type please remember that you should have a minimum of 14GB of disk space for binaries. Click Next.
Enter the system name to use for managing the local system. Please remember that this name will be used for SSL certificate deployment.
In next step we will create new vCenter Single Sign-On domain. If you wish change domain name, provide vCenter Single Sing-On password and change site name if required.
On next screen specify Active Directory user account which is allowed to Log on as a service.
If you configured ODBC connector to vCenter Server database on Microsoft SQL Server you should see its DSN Name displayed. Select it and click Next.
As usual - if you need, change ports. It is important to remember which ports are changed, because you might have serious problems after some time.
On next screen I will change location of vCenter Server binaries and Platform Services Controller to drive K.
On last screen we see summary of our installation. Click Install and wait.
After few minutes vCenter Server will be successfully installed.
After few minutes we have fully functional vCenter Server 6 installed.
Provide username and password and click Login. We successfully installed vCenter Server 6.0

Remove db_owner rights from vpxuser

Last step after installation of vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 is to remove **db_owner **rights from vpxuser(or we can simply say user which was defined during database creation) on system database msdb.

Launch SQL Server Management Studio, expand Security and click Logins.
Select vpxuser then click right mouse button and select properties. Choose User Mapping select msdb database and deselect db_owner.
To be sure that changes are done and everything works well I suggest to stop vCenter Server service,restart SQL services and start vCenter Server again.

Summary

This is the last post about VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 installation. In next post I will cover upgrade for vCenter Server Appliance and vCenter Server on Windows from version 5.* to version 6.0.

VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 – Part 2

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 07:00:36 +0000

In second post VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 - Part 2 I will describe how to configure Microsoft SQL Server to be used for vCenter Server and we will create vCenter database.

Create a SQL Server Database and User for vCenter Server

We will begin with SQL Server Database creation.

Login to SQL Server Management Studio as user with administrative privileges. Once you will see login screen connect to SQL Server Management Studio by selecting correct authentication type and proper account. In my case it is domain user which I used to install SQL Server.
Open vCenter Server installation media and navigate to /vCenter-Server/dbschema/DB_and_schema_creation_scripts_MSSQL.txt file.Please remember to change location of database file and log file. Adjust vpxuser password - I highlighted it for you. Remember that by default SQL Server use strong password policy and if you will not meet complexity of password SQL Query will fail. You can read more about it on Microsoft website - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms161959(v=sql.120).aspx. Below you will find adjusted query with database file and log location changed.

use [master]
go
CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY
(NAME = vcdb, FILENAME = H:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\VCDB.mdf, SIZE = 10MB, FILEGROWTH = 10% )
LOG ON
(NAME = vcdb_log, FILENAME = I:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\VCDB.ldf, SIZE = 1000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
go
use VCDB
go
CREATE LOGIN [vpxuser] WITH PASSWORD=!long_and_complex_password1, DEFAULT_DATABASE=VCDB, DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=us_english, CHECK_POLICY=OFF
go
CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser]
go
use MSDB
go
CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser]
go

Click New Query and paste script from above.
After that click execute and wait for script to complete.
Next step is to grant user we created - in my case vpxuser db_owner rights to VCDB and MSDB databases. We will do it simply by clicking to Logins and selecting vpxuser.
Right mouse button click on vpxuser. Select User Mapping, choose msdb and assign db_owner role membership and click ok.
Once we granted vpxuser db_owner rights we can create ODBC connection for vCenter Server installation. In order to do it navigate to Administrative Tools and select ODBC Data Sources (64-bit).
Select System DSN and click Add. Choose SQL Server Native Client 11.0 and click Finish.
We need to provide name for vCenter Server Database, optional description and to which SQL Server we would like to connect.
Click Next and select desired SQL Server authentication - I use Integrated Windows authentication. Click next.
Change default database to one we created before - in my case VCDB and click next.
If you know what you are doing you can adjust some settings - otherwise click Finish.
Last step is to test data source connectivity. Just click on Test Data Source and if you configured everything correctly you should see success as result.

Final word

We managed to finish vCenter Server database creation and SQL Server configuration and we are ready to do vCenter Server installation. As you probably suspect this will be done in third part which you can find here: https://www.wojcieh.net/vmware-vcenter-server-6-on-windows-server-2012-r2-with-microsoft-sql-server-2014-part-3/.

VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 – Part 1

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 07:00:42 +0000

With new VMware vSphere version 6 much more people choose vCenter Server Appliance instead of vCenter on Windows because now it has same limits. However there are still organisations which prefer to use vCenter Server on Windows Server. In first post - VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 - Part 1 I will describe Microsoft SQL Server 2014 preparation and installation. In next post I will continue with database creation and vCenter Server installation.

Software versions

As usual below you will find software version I am using when writing this post.

Operating System - Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard

Database - Microsoft SQL Server 2014

vCenter Server 6 - vCenter Server 6.0.0b released 07.072015, build 2800571

Software minimal requirements

Windows Server 2012 R2 requirements - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn303418.aspx

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 requirements - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(v=sql.120).aspx#pmosr

vCenter Server 6 requirements - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-vCTR-SRVR-Deployment-Guide-6-0.pdf page 6

By my calculation you need for the smallest environment (lab installation) we will need 2 vCPU, 12GB of RAM and about 140GB of storage and I will assign those resources to virtual machine.

Windows Server preparation

Even though this post describes installation for smallest environment which will be used as lab I want to show you how it should be installed in professional way. This involves correct disk alignment and SQL Server 2014 configuration.

I used following disk layout as described as in TechNet document http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2012/12/19/disk-and-file-layout-for-sql-server.aspx.

Disk C: OS - 60 GB
Disk E: SYSDB - 10 GB
Disk F: Tempdb - 10 GB
Disk G: Tempdb logs - 10 GB
Disk H: User databases - 10 GB
Disk I: User DB logs - 10 GB
Disk J: Database backup - 10 GB
Disk K: vCenter Server binaries -20 GB

Another thing that we have to do before installation is enabling of .Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. We can do it simply from PowerShell by executing following command. Start Powershell console as Administrator and connect Windows Server 2012 R2 to CD Drive.

`1`	`Install-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Core -Source D:\sources\sxs`

Wait for installation to finish and start SQL Server installation.

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 installation

Launch SQL Server installation and select first option.
Select instance to install. I will use this SQL Server as evaluation but if you have product key enter it below.
Accept license terms and click next.
On the next screen you will see simple checkup if all components needed for setup are installed.
Choose if you want to use Microsoft Update to check for updates.
Wait for SQL Server installer installs binaries.
On next screen we need to choose which features will be installed. Choose SQL Server Feature Installation.
Select following features:

Database Engine Services
Client Tools Connectivity
Integration Services
Management Tools – Basic
Management Tools – Complete

Specify the name and instance ID for SQL Server. I choose default one - MSSQLSERVER.
In Server Configuration section - Service Accounts tab leave defaults.
Switch to Collation to check if you have **SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS **collation.
Click next and first we will configure authentication mode and SQL Server administrators. I suggest to use Windows authentication mode because you can specify Active Directory group instead of local SQL Server accounts. I added my account to admin group but it might be that someone else in your organization will be SQL Server administrator.
Switch to Data Directories tab. I changed pretty much every directory to avoid filling up database disk by transactional logs. I suggest you do the same to ensure smooth SQL Server operation.
Click Next and review settings you provided. Please bare in mind that you can use ini file to install new services with your setting you just provided. Simply start setup.exe from iso file and point to ini file. Setup.exe /ConfigurationFile=MyConfigurationFile.INI

14. Click Install and wait for installation to finish.

15. Success!

Next steps

In next post I will guide you through vCenter Server database and ODBC creation. Here is the link to next part of article VMware vCenter Server 6 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 – Part 2.

vCenter 5.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2014 – Part 3

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 09:00:00 +0000

In last post, I will cover installation of vCenter Server on Windows Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2014. To recap - we installed SQL Server 2014, we created vCenter Server Database and we created ODBC connectivity.

vCenter Server components installation

vCenter Single Sign-On

Insert ISO into your server and start the installer.
Select Custom Install and start with vCenter Single Sign-On installation.
Click Install and then Next.
Accept EULA and click Next.
On the next screen, you will see vCenter Single Sign-On Prerequisites Check where you see all details and click Next.
On the next screen, you will see three options to select from:

Standalone vCenter Single Sign-On server
High availability
Multisite

Select In this tutorial I will select first option Standalone vCenter Single Sign-On server. If you want to read more about other options follow this KB’s:
- Multisite kb.vmware.com/kb/2034074
- High availability http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2033588
Provide SSO password and click Next.
Provide Site name. I selected default one.
I didn’t change SSO port. If you want to change it you can do it here.
Provide path where do you want to have vCenter Server binaries installed. I selected dedicated disk to avoid filling it up with Operating System files.
Click next.
On the last screen, we will see the summary of SSO installation.
Wait for the installer to finish.

VMware vSphere Web Client

Click the install button and follow installer.
Select language to install.
Click next and continue to next screen.
Accept EULA and click next.
Install Web Client into default directory. If you will select different directory than default one you will receive HTTP Error 404. There is VMware KB which describes issue in depth: kb.vmware.com/kb/2044953.
Configure ports if needed.
Provide Single Sign-On credentials and click Next.
Accept SSL SHA1 fingerprint and click Next.
Install certificates.
Click install and wait for it to finish.

vCenter Inventory Service

Start installer and select language to install.
Click Next and proceed with the installation.
Accept EULA and click Next.
Change destination of binaries to be installed.
Enter the domain name of vCenter Inventory Service local system.
Provide ports for vCenter Inventory Service.
Select inventory size to adjust JVM Memory settings.
Insert Single Sign On credentials and click Next.
Accept SSL SHA1 fingerprint and click Yes.
Click Install and wait for it to finish.
Click Finish.

vCenter Server

Select install and wait for Installer to appear.
Select language to install and click OK.
Click Next and proceed to next screen.
Accept EULA and click Next.
Provide vCenter Server key or skip it to be installed in evaluation mode.
Select vCenter Server Database which was installed earlier.
Click Next.
We selected during Database creation to use Full recovery model and this is why we received this warning screen.
Provide local administrator credentials and click next.
If you want to install vCenter Server in linked mode select it here. Otherwise, select Create a standalone VMware vCenter Server instance.
Change ports configuration if needed.
Select right size of your environment to correctly setup Java JVM for vCenter Server.
Enter SSO credentials and click Next.
Accept SSL SHA1 fingerprint and click Yes.
Register vCenter Single Sign-On administrator.
Enter vCenter Inventory Service URL (if changed before) and click Next.
Change the location of vCenter Server binaries to a different drive than Operating System.
Accept or not participation in CEIP and click Next.
After successful installation, I changed all VMware services to use ap-vcenter credentials.
If you plan to use application user as I did, don’t forget to add your application user to local administrator group or grant this user administrator rights on vCenter Server.
Open vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client and connect to vCenter Server we just installed.

This concludes the installation of vCenter Server 5.5 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 on Windows Server 2012 R2.

vCenter 5.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2014 – Part 2

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:00:44 +0000

In the second post of vCenter installation on Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft SQL Server 2014, I will cover vCenter Databases creation and ODBC connectivity.

I used ISO VMware-VIMSetup-all-5.5.0-2183112-20140901-update02.iso which translates to the following version of vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b, released 09 OCT 2014 with build number 2183111.

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 configuration

Open SQL Server 2014 Management Studio and authenticate with username and password.
Provide username and password.
In SQL Server 2014 Management Studio and navigate to Security \ Logins and click New Login.
In a previous post, we created application user called ap-mssql and ap-vcenter. I used the ap-mssql user to start all SQL Server 2014 services and ap-vcenter will be used to start all VMware services. I will use the ap-mssql user to connect to vCenter and SQL server.
In General section I provided username.
In Server Roles section we select only public.

vCenter Server 5.5 database creation

We will create a vCenter database manually. We will use following options:

Collation - SQL Server Collation Model: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.
Recovery model - Full
Compatibility type - SQL Server 2014

Click on Databases and select New Database.
Enter your database name. I used a simple name **vCenterDB **and owner of DB is previously created user ap-mssql.
In Options, I changed collation to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, recovery mode to Simple and SQL compatibility model to SQL Server 2014.
Click OK.
The last step is to change application user ap-mssql Default Database. Navigate to Logins and select your user. In General select Default Database to your vCenter Database.
Now we are ready to install vCenter.

vCenter Database backup

In the earlier post I wrote that I will follow SQL Server Best Practices and I would like to configure Transaction Log backup in advance. Before we can execute Transaction Log backup we have to start the full backup.

After full backup is completed we can prepare **Transaction Log **backup.

Click on vCenter Database, select Tasks and Backup.
In General select backup type as Transaction Log. If you configured disks and SQL server as I did in the earlier post, then the backup destination will be pre-selected.
In Media, I selected Append to the existing backup set, V**erify backup when finished **and Back up the tail of the log, and leave the database in the restoring state.
In Backup Options, I selected expiration date of backup and compression level.
Click ok.

More detailed description is available on Microsoft MSDN article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189606.aspx.

MSSQL ODBC configuration

The last step before we will install vCenter Server Database is ODBC configuration.

Go to Control Panel and then to **Administrative Tools **and we select ODBC Data Sources (64-bit).
Click System DSN, select Add and click SQL Server Native Client 11.0.
Provide the name for the ODBC connection and select your SQL Server.
Select Change the default database to: and select your database.
Click next and finish. At the end click Test Data Source. If you configured everything correctly then you should see the same result as I have.

Summary

After preparing ODBC connectivity we can proceed with vCenter Server installation. This will be covered in the third post.

vCenter 5.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2 with SQL Server 2014 – Part 1

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:59:43 +0000

It has been a while since I was dealing with vCenter on SQL Server simply because I used vCenter Server appliance. In series of post, I would like to guide you through the installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2014, vCenter database creation and preparation and vCenter 5.5 Update 2 installation.

In my guide I will use following software:

Operating System - Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition
Database - Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition
VMware - VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 2b

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 preparation

Following Microsoft SQL Server best practices I will install SQL Server 2014 with following disk layout:

Disk 1 : OS/SQL Binaries
Disk 2: System databases (aside from tempdb)
Disk 3: tempdb
Disk 4: User databases
Disk 5: User DB transaction logs
Disk 6 : VMware vCenter Server binaries

Before installation, I recommend running System Configuration Checker. It is a tool which checks if all necessary components required by SQL Server 2014 are installed.
Another thing that we have to do before installation is enabling of.Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. We can do it simply from PowerShell by executing following command.

`1`	`Install-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Core -Source D:\sources\sxs`

We will create application users: **ap-mssql **and ap-vcenter and we will use it to run SQL Server services and vCenter services. I described how to do it in this post: https://www.wojcieh.net/how-to-create-application-user-in-active-directory/

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 installation

We switch to Installation section and select New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to existing installation.
Provide SQL Server 2014 product key or select evaluation.
Accept the license terms and if you want you can join **Customer Experience Improvement Program **also called CEIP.
Choose if you want to receive Microsoft Updates to patch SQL Server 2014.
Click next and Setup will initiate another check to make sure that there will be no problems.
Click next and select SQL Server Feature Installation
Choose following features:
- Database Engine Services
- Client Tools Connectivity
- Integration Services
- Management Tools – Basic
- Management Tools – Complete
And select following directories:
In Instance Configuration, I selected Default instance and I clicked Next.
To run all SQL services we will use user called ap-mssql.
I added my user as SQL Server administrator. I selected Windows authentication mode.
As I wrote at the beginning I will distribute directories across different disks. 13 .Select Install and watch the progress.

Summary

This concludes the installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 on Windows Server 2012 R2. In the next post, I will proceed with SQL Server configuration.

How to create application user in Active Directory

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 07:37:58 +0000

In one of my earlier post https://www.wojcieh.net/vcenter-server-5-5-on-sql-server-2012-installation-part-2/ I was asked how to create application user in Active Directory.

In few steps, I will explain how to do it and I will show you how to use it.

Why do we use application users at all?

There are several reason to create such users in Active Directory:

User isolation, each application user is used for one and only application/service
User has stronger password than normal users - it is more secure
Services which are using such user are easier to manage

How to create application user?

It is a very easy task. Create desired user in Active Directory like any other users. I suggest to create and follow username scheme - for example, you can use app-username, ap-username or application-name as username.

After a user is created set a long and difficult password and store it securely. A second thing you have to do is to grant application user rights to start service. You can do it by editing Local Group Policy. Click Start \ **Run **\ **gpedit.msc **that you can change the desired service to be managed by the application user.

Navigate to **Local Computer Policy **\ **Windows Settings **\ **Security Settings **\ **Local Policies **

Click Logon as a service and provide desired application username.

Application user security - word of advice

After you successfully started service as application user I suggest doing the following to keep your environment secure.

Store application user password securely
Don’t use the same username for more than one service.
Create new Group Policy which denies your application user to login locally and through Remote Desktop Service (RDP).
You can do it simply by clicking in Group Policy Management console by clicking Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here.
Provide GPO name
Click Edit
Navigate to Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Local Policies and set values for Deny log on locally and Deny log on through Remote Desktop Services for application accounts.
After that run **gpupdate /force **on servers to refresh policy immediately or wait until it will be applied globally.

VMware vSphere Update Manager 5.5

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 08:30:32 +0000

Once we successfully installed vCenter Server 5.5 it is time to enhance its functionality by installing VMware vSphere Update Manager.

What is VMware vSphere Update Manager?

In short words, Update Manager is used to automating patching of VMware hosts. It is really simple yet powerful tool - it allows you easily update your whole infrastructure with zero downtime (if all done properly 😉 ).

You can read details on VMware site http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/features/update-manager.html.

VMware vSphere Update Manager Database creation

I didn’t find anything on VMware site how to prepare or create VMware Update Manager database but I will use example script for vCenter Database and just rename it.

go

CREATE DATABASE [vUMDB] ON PRIMARY

(NAME = N'vUMDB', FILENAME = N'E:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL11.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLDATAvUMDB.mdf' , SIZE = 3000KB , FILEGROWTH = 10% )

LOG ON

(NAME = N'vUMDB_log', FILENAME = N'E:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL11.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLDATAvUMDB.ldf' , SIZE = 1000KB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)

COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

go

use vUMDB

go

sp_addlogin @loginame=[vumser], @passwd=N'Start123@_1_2', @defdb='vUMDB', @deflanguage='us_english'

go

ALTER LOGIN [vumser] WITH CHECK_POLICY = OFF

go

CREATE USER [vumser] for LOGIN [vumser]

go

After successful Database creation, you need to add a user to db_owner to VUMDB.

VMware vSphere Update Manager 32 bit DSN creation

VMware vSphere Update Manager use 32 bit DSN ODBC connector. In order to configure it, you need to navigate to %windir%SysWoW64odbcad32.exe directory and create DSN. It is pretty much the same next, next, finish creator. Please remember to use SQL Native Client 32-bit DSN, otherwise, it will be not detected by VUM.

Navigate to directory and start odbcad32.exe
Click Add and select SQL Server Native Client and click Finish.
Provide Name, Description and SQL Server.
Point to SQL Database VUMDB
Go to the end of setup and test connectivity.

VMware vSphere Update Manager Installation

Installation is pretty straight forward. If you configured 32-bit DSN it will be painless. Let us go through it quickly so we can patch our Infrastructure.

Launch installation from ISO
Accept License Agreement
Select if you want to immediately download patches from VMware site. I deselected it because I want to do it manually later.
Provide vCenter Server IP address and credentials.
Select previously configured 32-bit DSN.
Summary of Database information
Enter connection information in your environment.
If you have less than 120GB free on disk where you will install VMware Update Manager you will receive this warning. Don’t worry - installation will be not canceled.
Change Directory if needed.
Click Install to go ahead with the installation.
Click Finish.

Once VUM is installed you can check via vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client if the plugin is available.As you see on the screenshot it is available.

That is it. I hope your installation process was painless and it worked fine. I will cover VUM usage in next posts.

vCenter Server 5.5 on SQL Server 2012 installation – Part 3

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 21:51:36 +0000

In third and last part of vCenter Server 5.5 installation I will cover vCenter Server installation with all bits and pieces around it.

vCenter Server 5.5 step by step installation

Version 5.5 consists following components:

vCenter Single Sign On
vSphere Web Client
vCenter Inventory Service
vCenter Server

In version 5.5 VMware there are two ways for vCenter Server installation. First one is called Simple Install where all components are kept on one server and you can’t change directories where vCenter components are installed.

By the way this is current recommendation from VMworld sessions to install everything in one box - more about this later.

Of course if you plan to spread components across server than you should choose Custom Install. Also if you want to change default directories custom install is right choice for you.

vCenter Single Sign-On

Single Sign-On is greatly improved in comparison to SSO in vSphere 5.1. There is no SQL Database needed any more - everything is based on flat files. More details about new features in vSphere 5.5 is available here http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf

In order to install SSO click Install and follow installer.

Click Next
Accept License Agreement
Setup is checking for prerequisites
vCenter Server deployment mode. Choose one option - in my case it is first vCenter Server so I choose vCenter Single Sign-On for your first vCenter Server
Provide SSO password - write it down. Without it you will have problems to login.
Provide Site name
Provide port on which SSO should run. Default SSO port is 7444 - if you change it, write it down. You will need it in order to register other parts of vCenter.
Confirm or change desired directory. I changed it to different drive.
Installation summary
SSO installed

vSphere Web Client

Next part of vCenter Server installation is vSphere Web Client. Web Client is a tool available pretty much for every modern Web Browser. It is based on flash and it allows to manage your whole infrastructure.

In version 5.5 vSphere Client there is clearly stated that all new features are available only via vSphere Web Client.

]14

Message is clear - VMware will get rid of classic vSphere Client pretty soon so I suggest to familiarize with Web Client and forget about classic Client.

Let us install vSphere Web Client.

Installer start, click next.
Accept License Agreement
Accept or change ports. Remember - default ports for vSphere Client 5.5 are:

http - 9090
https - 9443

Provide administrator SSO credentials and accept SSO certificate.
Installation is successful

Let us install vCenter Inventory Service.

vCenter Inventory Service

vCenter Inventory Service was release in version 5.1. Basically what it does it gather information about your infrastructure and provides this information to clients. It is used only in vSphere Web Client as some sort of proxy. You don’t need to collect this information every time you login to vCenter Server. It is much more efficient than constant query which is used in classic vSphere Client.

Start installation by choosing vCenter Inventory Service and accept License Agreement
Choose directory - in my case I selected E drive.
Provide FQDN
Choose appropriate ports - if you change them to different ones write them down. It will save you time later on.
Choose size of your inventory. It is needed to correct settings for JVM.
Provide SSO credentials, click next and accept SSO Certificate.
Click install and wait for installer to finish.
Close installer and let us proceed with vCenter Server installation.

vCenter Server

From installer select vCenter Server and let us go ahead with installation.

Click next
Accept License Agreement and click Next
Provide vCenter serial number or just select next and vCenter will be installed in evaluation mode.
Select SQL Express installation or in my case click Use an existing supported database. If you configured your DSN correctly than your vCenter Database should appear there.
If you choose to use SQL authentication provide created user name and password. I use Windows authentication which is already configured.
Provide local administrator password. We will choose later to use Active Directory account.
Select Standalone vCenter Instance or vCenter Linked Mode. I am deploying my first vCenter Server so I choose first option.
Review / change ports if needed.
Choose size of your inventory.
Register your vCenter Server in SSO and accept its certificate.
Provide administrator account in your vCenter Server.
If you changed vCenter Inventory Service URL enter it here. If you went with defaults that click next.
Select where you want to install vCenter Server. Click Next and finally install it.

When installation is completed I changed following things:

In SQL Server Manager I created new security login for ap-vcenter@marusiak.local with db_owner rights for vCenterDB.
ap-vcenter@marusiak.local was added to local administrator group

After all changes I was able to start vCenter Server as ap-vcenter@marusiak.local.

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this series of post and installation will work like in my environment. If you have any questions just post comment.

vCenter Server 5.5 on SQL Server 2012 installation – Part 2

Sat, 02 Nov 2013 07:30:57 +0000

In the second post of vCenter 5.5 installation, I will cover following topics.

MSSQL databases preparation
MSSQL ODBC connectivity

vCenter Server 5.5 database creation

In order to create database execute following script //vCenter-Server/dbschema/DB\and\schema\creation\scripts_MSSQL.txt

Change database name, username, password and database location according to your setup.

use [master]
go
CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY 
(NAME = N'vcdb', FILENAME = N'C:VCDB.mdf', SIZE = 3000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10% )
LOG ON
(NAME = N'vcdb_log', FILENAME = N'C:VCDB.ldf', SIZE = 1000KB, FILEGROWTH = 10%)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
go
use VCDB
go
sp_addlogin @loginame=[vpxuser], @passwd=N'vpxuser!0', @defdb='VCDB', @deflanguage='us_english'
go
ALTER LOGIN [vpxuser] WITH CHECK_POLICY = OFF
go
CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser]
go
use MSDB
go
CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser]
go

After Database is successfully created we should create ODBC connection which will allow vCenter to communicate with SQL Server.

MSSQL ODBC configuration

In your vCenter Server go to Control Panel Administrative Tools ODBC Data Sources (64-bit)

and select System DSN. Click Add and select SQL Server Native Client 11.0.

In new window provide data source name, description and location of the database (in my case local).

Change the default database to vCenterDB, click next and Finish. Next step is to test if the connection works. Click Test Data Source and you should receive information about a successful connection.

Before installing vCenter server I added user ap-vcenter@marusiak.local to security logins and I granted sysadmin rights to vCenterDB.

In order to do that go to SQL Server Management Studio and navigate to Security Logins and click New Login.

In new window provide username - in my case Marusiak\ap-vcenter. Go to Server Roles and grant user sysadmin rights.

Next go to User Mappings, select vCenterDB and grant user db_owner rights.

After all, preparation was done we can easily install vCenter Server 5.5 which I will cover in third and last part of series.

In third post https://www.wojcieh.net/vcenter-server-5-5-on-sql-server-2012-installation-part-3/ I went through vCenter Server components installation.

vCenter Server 5.5 on SQL Server 2012 installation – Part 1

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 20:56:33 +0000

In the first post, I will show you how to install Microsoft SQL Server 2012 to use it by vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows Server 2012. Next posts will cover Databases preparation and vCenter Server 5.5 installation.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 installation

Before you actually launch SQL Server installation I recommend to run System Configuration Checker. This tool might really save your time when your installation will fail or you will have problems.

In my case, it was all ok.

Installation of SQL Server is really not difficult (almost like 95% of Windows software - Next, Next, Next) and it has only FOUR steps.

Insert product key or choose Evaluation or Express version
Accept License terms
Accept or not product updates
Wait for finish

Next step is SQL Server Role Setup which is a bit more complicated.

Warning - NetFx3 during SQL Server 2012 SP1 installation

I ran into an error during SQL Server 2012 SP1 installation. When you selected desired/required for vCenter Server SQL Server Features setup will finish but you will receive an error that Windows feature NetFx3 was not enabled. It happened 1 out of 3 SQL Server installations but it is good to know how to fix it.

You will see following error:

And installation will fail with following errors:

On blog http://garvis.ca/2013/01/04/installing-netfx3-on-windows-server-2012/ it is explained how to fix.

Just execute the following command:

`1`	`dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:netfx3 /all /source:D:\sources\sxs`

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Feature Installation

In this section, we will go through the process of SQL Server installation.

Setup Support Rules - In this screen setup will check if all prerequisites are met
Product Key - just enter product key or select evaluation version
License Agreement - accept license agreement
Setup Role - select **SQL Server Feature Installation
Feature Selection - choose following Features:

Database Engine Services
Client Tools Connectivity
Integration Services
Management Tools - Basic
Management Tools - Complete

You can change as well directories where SQL are installed. I selected another drive to avoid filling OS partition.
Installation Rules - just click next.
Instance Configuration - here you can change SQL Server instance name and instance directory. Again I changed it to a different drive.
Disk Space Requirements - setup will check if you have enough disk space on selected drive
Server Configuration - as I wrote at the beginning, I created a dedicated SQL domain user with strong password which will not expire. I set all services to automatic start.
Database Engine Configuration - in this section I added mssql, vcenter, and my current account as SQL Administrators. I used Windows Authentication mode.
Error Reporting - I don’t want to report anything to Microsoft 🙂
Installation Configuration Rules - again setup is checking if everything will go smoothly
Ready to Install - summary of selected features
Installation Progress - can’t be more clear 😉
Installation Finished - yay we got it 🙂

Summary

In second post https://www.wojcieh.net/vcenter-server-5-5-on-sql-server-2012-installation-part-2/ I described next steps to install vCenter Server 5.5.

How to fix large SQL Server transaction log file?

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 08:31:01 +0000

It is huge, it is thick as hell, and you want to get rid of it? If you are thinking about **transaction log **file (I hope you are 😉 ) I will show you how to do it.

First thing is to check which database is using it. If you have small SQL Server than it is easy to find to which Database it belongs (In my case it was VMware vCenter RSA Database). If you have a large amount of databases probably it will be easier to use T-SQL http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189493.aspx.

In order to shrink translog.ldf using SQL Server Management Studio and go to:

Databases
Select desired Database and click right mouse button
Select Tasks Shrink Files
Choose File type as Log and click OK.

In my case translog was 38GB and after shrinking it was only 10MB. My mistake when I was creating RSA Database I didn’t select Recovery model simple.

Find when Virtual Machine was created using SQL query

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 07:15:16 +0000

Yesterday I was asked by my colleague if it is possible to find when virtual machine was created and by who.

I found great post on Grzegorz blog. I tested it and it works from ESX 4.1 U3 up to ESXi 5.1

However it is possible to retrieve this information as well from vCenter database.

In order to find when Virtual Machine was created you can create simple SQL query in vCenter database and I will show you how to Find when Virtual Machine was created using SQL query.

In my case it is Windows SQL Server so I logged into SQL Management Studio and I executed following query.

select CREATE_TIME, USERNAME, VM_NAME, HOST_NAME, DATACENTER_NAME
          from VPX_EVENT
          Where VM_NAME = 'VIRTUAL MACHINE NAME'
order by CREATE_TIME;

After that I received information when it was created and who did it. Don’t forget to switch to vCenter Database at the beginning because you will execute query against Master Database 😉

VMware Update Manager points to wrong database

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:00:13 +0000

Today I was working on problem related to VMware Update Manager pointing to wrong database and I managed to find the solution to this problem.

In my case SQL server was running on Windows Server 2008 R2 so I had to check 32 bit DSN located in %SystemRoot%\syswow64\odbcad32.exe

Of course DSN was pointing to correct database on correct DB server but VUM was still not working. Also it is important to mention that two days before vCenter Server was migrated from one host to another with vCenter Server version upgrade. I knew previous SQL database names so I knew what I was looking for. On new SQL server I created new databases - the one which was VUM referring to.

I didn’t know how to find root cause but colleague of mine suggested that it must be somewhere in VUM configuration file.

I did small Powershell (grep like) query which pointed me to configuration file.

`1`	`Get-ChildItem -Filter . -Recurse \| Select-String DBSTRING`

When Powershell query finished I got results where DBSTRING was located. It was vci-integrity.xml file located in VUM installation folder - in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\VMwareInfrastructure\Update Manager.

After changing section in xml and restarting VUM service everthing worked fine.

<database>
    <dbtype>SQL Server Native Client 10.0</dbtype>
    <dsn>WRONG DSN</dsn>
    <initialConnections<20</initialConnections>
    <maxConnections>40</maxConnections>
    <password>DB PASSWORD</password>
    <username>USER PASSOWRD</username>
  </database>

Sadly after spending some time on this I found VMware KB kb.vmware.com/kb/101522.