It is the week following VMworld 2015 so that marks my annual homelab wipe. I normally do this after every VMworld due to the renewed urge to test out all the new tricks I learned over the course of the week. In doing this, I decided to dunk the new vCSA6 web installer in lieu of the CLI. I work in environments where browsers are typically locked down to the point of supreme frustration so below you’ll find a faster, in my opinion, way of deploying the vCSA using JSON.
Note: This is simply a fully embedded vCSA install using the vPostGres database and localized SSO.
First, mount the vCSA ISO to your system (or extract the ISO if that is your preference), fire up command prompt/terminal, and change directories to the “vcsa-cli-installer” folder. As you can see, there are tools for OS X, Windows, and Linux so you can pull this off on any system you prefer.
The tool which is utilized is vcsa-deploy. This application can accept direct parameters or reference a JSON file, which is what this article will concentrate on. Simply run
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vcsa-deploy /path-to-json-file.json |
and away you go.
Below you will find the JSON file I created for my install.
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{ "deployment": { "esx.hostname":"esxi-02.local", "esx.datastore":"Prod", "esx.username":"root", "esx.password":"xxxxxxx", "deployment.option":"tiny", "deployment.network":"VM Network", "appliance.name":"vCSA60", "appliance.thin.disk.mode":true }, "vcsa": { "system": { "root.password":"xxxxxxx", "ssh.enable":true }, "sso": { "password":"xxxxxxx", "domain-name":"labotage.local", "site-name":"Labotage" }, "networking": { "ip.family":"ipv4", "mode":"static", "ip":"10.0.1.5", "prefix":"24", "gateway":"192.168.1.1", "dns.servers":"192.168.1.1", "system.name":"vCSA" } } } |
As you can see, it’s pretty self explanatory so just adjust the settings that fit your environment and fire! You can also check out /vcsa-cli-installer/templates/full_conf.json for more settings if you are curious.
Assuming your JSON is formatted properly, you should see output similar to this:
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F:\vcsa-cli-installer\win32>vcsa-deploy.exe E:\vcsa60.json Start vCSA command line installer to deploy vCSA "vCSA60", an embedded node. Please see c:\users\sabotage\appdata\local\temp\vcsa-cli-installer-7rehsj.log for logging information. Run installer with "-v" or "--verbose" to log detailed information. The SSO password meets the installation requirements. Opening vCSA image: F:\vcsa\vmware-vcsa Opening VI target: vi://root@esxi-02.local:443/ Deploying to VI: vi://root@esxi-02.local:443/ Progress: 99% Transfer Completed Powering on VM: vCSA60 Progress: 87% Power On Completed Installing services... Progress: 5%. Setting up storage Progress: 56%. Installed oracle-instantclient11.2-odbc-11.2.0.2.0.x86_64.rpm Progress: 61%. Installed vmware-certificate-server-6.0.0.2119-2499722.x86_64.rpm Progress: 77%. Installed VMware-invsvc-6.0.0-2562558.x86_64.rpm Progress: 79%. Installed VMware-vpxd-6.0.0-2559267.x86_64.rpm Progress: 83%. Installed VMware-cloudvm-vimtop-6.0.0-2559267.x86_64.rpm Progress: 87%. Installed VMware-vdcs-6.0.0-2502245.x86_64.rpm Progress: 95%. Configuring the machine Service installations succeeded. Configuring services for first time use... Progress: 3%. Starting VMware Authentication Framework... Progress: 11%. Starting VMware Identity Management Service... Progress: 18%. Starting VMware Component Manager... Progress: 22%. Starting VMware License Service... Progress: 25%. Starting VMware Service Control Agent... Progress: 29%. Starting VMware vAPI Endpoint... Progress: 33%. Starting VMware System and Hardware Health Manager... Progress: 37%. Starting VMware Appliance Management Service... Progress: 44%. Starting VMware Common Logging Service... Progress: 48%. Starting VMware Postgres... Progress: 55%. Starting VMware Inventory Service... Progress: 59%. Starting VMware Message Bus Configuration Service... Progress: 65%. Starting VMware vSphere Web Client... Progress: 66%. Starting VMware vSphere Web Client... Progress: 70%. Starting VMware ESX Agent Manager... Progress: 77%. Starting VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service... Progress: 81%. Starting VMware Content Library Service... Progress: 85%. Starting VMware vCenter Workflow Manager... Progress: 88%. Starting VMware vService Manager... Progress: 92%. Starting VMware Performance Charts... Progress: 100%. Starting vsphere-client-postinstall... First time configuration succeeded. vCSA installer finished deploying "vCSA60", an embedded node: System Name: 192.168.1.5 Login as: Administrator@labotage.local |
And there you have it, a fresh vCSA 6.0 install without having to use the web installer.