• You have reviewed the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
• You have met all minimum software and hardware requirements for vSphere 5.5. For more information, see the System Requirements section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
• You have configured both a forward and reverse lookup zone for this Microsoft Windows Server on your Domain Name System (DNS) Server(s). For more information on configuring reverse lookup zones in a Microsoft Active Directory domain, see the Microsoft TechNet article Adding a Reverse Lookup Zone.
• When you plan to authenticate against Active Directory, you have joined your Microsoft Windows server to the domain. For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet article How to Join Your Computer to a Domain.
  
  Note: The preceding links were correct as of September 19, 2013. If you find a link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
  
  
• When you plan to run the VMware VirtualCenter Server service as a user other than the local system account, the account is already created and has local administrator access.
• This is the first installation of vSphere within your environment.
• You have decided not to distribute the vSphere services across multiple Windows servers.
• You know the number of hosts and virtual machines you plan to deploy within your environment.

Installation steps for a Simple Install of vCenter Server 5.5

1. Mount the vSphere 5.5 installation media. The installation wizard appears.
2. In the left pane, click Simple Install and then click Install.
   
   Note: If any of the prerequisites are not met, they are listed in the right pane under Prerequisites.
   
   
3. In the welcome screen, Click Next.
4. Review the End User License Agreement. If you agree, select the I accept the terms in the license agreement option and then click Next.
5. Review the Prerequisites check screen and then click Next.
6. Provide a password for the Single Sign-On (SSO) administrator user and then click Next.
   
   Note: This dialog shows information related to a domain by the name vsphere.local. This is not a domain that is auto-detected within the existing environment, but a net new domain used internally by vSphere. The [email protected] account performs the same function as the admin@System-Domain account in previous versions of vSphere.
   
   For more information about the [email protected] account, see the vSphere Software Components section of the vCenter Server and Host Management Guide.
   
   
7. Provide a site name and then click Next.
   
   Note: The site name is used in environments where there are SSO servers in multiple sites. Ensure to select this name carefully because it cannot be changed in the vSphere Web Client after the installation completes.
   
   
8. Optionally, provide an alternative TCP port number for the SSO service and then click Next.
   
   Notes:
   
   • Changing the default ports is recommended only if you have an unchangeable port conflict in the same system.
   • When using the custom installer for vSphere Web Client, Inventory Service, and vCenter Service, you are prompted for the Lookup Service URL. The prompts default to port 7444. If you change the port number now, you must manually update the port number in all future custom installers that would use this instance of SSO.
   
   
9. Optionally, provide an alternative installation location and then click Next.
   
   Notes:
   
   • The installation path of vCenter Server must be compatible with the installation requirements for Microsoft Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM/AD LDS). The installation path cannot contain non-ASCII characters, commas (,), periods (.), exclamation points (!), pound signs (#), at signs (@), or percentage signs (%).
   • The path must conform to NTFS naming restrictions. For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet article Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces.
     
     The preceding link was correct as of September 19, 2013. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
     
     
   • The installation requires 100 GB of disk space to be available. For more information, see the Hardware Requirement for vCenter Server, the vSphere Web Client, vCenter Inventory Service, and vCenter Single Sign-On section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
   
   
10. In the confirmation screen, click Install to start the installation.
11. In the license key screen, enter your vCenter Server 5.5 license key and then click Next.
    
    Note: You can view your license keys in Customer Connect. For more information, see Viewing license keys in Customer Connect (2006831). If you do not enter a license key, you can proceed with a 60 Day Evaluation license and you see a popup, which prompts you to acknowledge that you are proceeding without a license.
    
    
12. Select the database solution for vCenter Server and then click Next.
    
    You can use one of these options for the database:
    
13. • Install a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express instance.
    • Use an existing supported database.
      
      To use an existing supported database, select the Data Source Name (DSN) from the dropdown.
      
      Note: For information about specific database versions and service pack configurations supported with vCenter Server 5.5, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.
      
      
14. Select the user type that the vCenter Server should run with and click Next. You can use one of these options:
    
    • Use Windows Local System Account
    • Use an alternate account
      
      
15. Optionally, provide alternative TCP port numbers.
    
    Note: Changing the default ports is recommended only if you have an unchangeable port conflict in the same system.
    
    
16. Optionally, select the Increase the number of available ephemeral ports option and click Next.
17. Select one of these inventory sizes, depending on environmental requirements:
    
    
    • Small (less than 100 hosts or 1000 virtual machines)
    • Medium (100-400 hosts or 1000-4000 virtual machines)
    • Large (more than 400 hosts or 4000 virtual machines)
      
      
18. Click Next.
19. In the confirmation screen, click Install to start the installation.
20. When the installation completes, click Finish.

Post installation of vCenter Server 5.5

After installing vCenter Server 5.5:

• Decide if you want to add an external identity source, such as Open LDAP and Active Directory. For more information about the different types of Identity Sources for vSphere 5.5, see the Add a vCenter Single Sign-On Identity Source section in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.
• Decide if you want to configure SSO across multiple sites to share a common identity source.
• Perform a backup of your new environment.
• Install vSphere Update Manager 5.5. For more information, see Installing vSphere Update Manager 5.5 on a Microsoft Windows platform (2058410).