I am testing vSphere 6.5 with the following setup:
I have a Windows 10 laptop with VMware Workstation 12 Pro installed. I have create a virtual machine in Workstation running Windows Server 2012 R2. I have set up AD and DNS on it. This server has an IP address of 192.168.59.129 and its FQDN is win2012.ad.example.com. I can ping the machine and DNS is working correctly. I have successfully also set up an ESXi host in another virtual machine and they can ping each other.
I am now trying to install vCenter Server Appliance 6.5, so far with no success. I am trying to use the OVA file: VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.5.0.5200-4944578_OVF10.ova located in the ISO. I understand after reading several articles that I first need to configure the .vmx file before booting my machine. I think the main reason is that I am not fully understanding the settings that should be placed in the file, specifically the vmdir settings. I have tried a number of different variations on the settings and still nothing seems to be working. My most recent configuration looks like this:
guestinfo.cis.deployment.node.type = "embedded"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr.family = "ipv4"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.mode = "static"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.pnid = "vc.ad.example.com"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.addr = "192.168.59.194"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.prefix = "24"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.gateway = "192.168.59.129"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.net.dns.servers = "192.168.59.129"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.root.passwd = "Password#1"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.ssh.enabled = "True"
guestinfo.cis.deployment.autoconfig = "True"
guestinfo.cis.appliance.ntp.servers = "pool.ntp.org"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.password = "Password#1"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.site-name = "mysite"
guestinfo.cis.vmdir.domain-name = "vsphere.local"
guestinfo.cis.ceip_enabled = "False"
I have also made sure that vc.ad.example.com is mapped correctly to 192.168.59.194 on the DNS server, including reverse DNS (PTR) entries.
After the server begins its initialization routine, I eventually get this error on the screen:
Failed to start services. Firstboot Error.
I am unable to ping the machine or connect through a web browser.
What am I doing wrong here?
As a side note, I should also point out that on boot up I am also getting the following errors which I am not sure if they are related or not, or if they can be safely ignored:
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through (I am getting this line for all 12 drives sda through sdl)
A start job is running for dev-swap_vg-swap1.device (... / 1min 30s)
[TIME] Timed out waiting for device dev-swap_vg-swap1.device.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for /dev/swap_vg/swap1.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Swap.
[FAILED] Failed to start LSB: Lightning fast webserver with light system requirements.
Are these errors safe to ignore, or are they the reason that I am getting the Firstboot Error?
Thank you for your help!
