vCSA 6.0 CLI Install

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

and away you go.

Below you will find the JSON file I created for my install.

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:

And there you have it, a fresh vCSA 6.0 install without having to use the web installer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.