Vcenter 5.1 compatible with Windows 2008 R2?

[BenConner]

Hi,

I'm puzzled a bit; I've tried installing vCenter 5.1 and 5.5 both on Windows 2008 Datacenter R2 with a fresh install of the OS.  Both times it has choked.

Am I missing something?  Is vCenter compatible with the 2008 R2 Datacenter version?  I have 5.1 running on a VM under Windows 2008 R2 standard.  ?

Thanks!

--Ben

[vThinkBeyondVM]

All the versions of vCenter 5.1 & 5.5 (5.5/5.1, 55u1/u2,5.1u1/u2) are compatible with Windows server 2008 R2 (Datacenter, Enterprise, Standard) as Host OS@vCenter.

Refer:VMware Compatibility Guide: Guest/Host Search

Can you plz give more details on installation failure? If you attempt to install vCenter through Simple Install option failed, plz try installing each vCenter component separately (one after other)

[BenConner]

Certainly; had tried to run the 'simple install' approach and the 5.5 setup package choked in what appeared to be the SSO install.  Ran that separately per the suggestion on the fail screen and got a somewhat different failure.  Then tried 5.1 to see if that would work.  That didn't either.

I've attached the audit trail for the simple install as well as the sso failure .  Hopefully this helps.

--Ben

[admin]

As per the logs you are using bundled DB. Something have gone wrong while setiing up DB. Can you please uninstall DB and restart system and try to install SSO from fresh install. Hope this will help.

[BenConner]

Thanks; will have to do that this evening.

Much appreciated.

--Ben

[BenConner]

Oh man.  I just discovered I had a routing issue on this box; fixed that and now I'm staring at 93 Windows updates.  Will plow through those and if I don't run out of time tonight, will try it from the top.

Oops.

--Ben

[BenConner]

I saw that SQL2008 Express had been installed; I uninstalled it.  Reran the vCenter Installer program.

Picked the SSO option rather than the Simple Install.  It initial InstallShield splash screen comes up and I can see in the Processes tab in the Task Manager that VMware-SSO-Server.exe*32 is running, aswell as TrustedInstaller.exe from MS.  But nothing appears on the console screen.

--Ben

[admin]

BenConner There is definitely something wrong with your machine. Can you please try to install in a fresh machine. Also did you reboot machine after uninstalling SQL? Instead of using simple install, Install SSO first then IS and VC.

Thanks,

DJ.

[BenConner]

Hi DJ,

Am now doing the testing inside a Workstation VM rather than the original physical server.  That way I can use snapshots to my advantage.

Going from a fresh, updated install on Win 2008 R2 Datacenter, I ran the 'Install SSO' option off the CD for 5.1  I then ran the 'Install SSO' rather than the simple install.  That took me to the screens which let me pick passwords for SSO and SQL 2008 Express (which I did).  It then installed SQL and then tried to install SSO.  I then got the error:

Error 29102. An invalid argument was provided.

InstallShield then finishes, and I check the box for the Windows Installer log.  I've attached that file to this response (vim-sso-msi.txt).

I'm wondering if I might have chosen a poor password pattern based on the requirements for SQL 2008.  Mine was all lower case 9 characters. ?

Thanks!

--Ben

[BenConner]

Just brought up SQL Management Studio and tried to connect to the instance of SQL 2008 R2 that vCenter created, use sa and the password I chose.  Couldn't do it.And noticed (not surprisingly) that the RSA database had nothing defined in it.  Am going to revert back to the snapshot and try a 'standard' SQL 2012 password pattern.

--Ben

[BenConner]

Well, it looks like the root cause was the SQL password.  Picking one out of the docs and that let the process complete (single-stepping each install).

Now to find out why the physical server hangs when I run the SSO install.  Sigh...

--Ben