vCenter 6.7 for Windows unattended installation

[glanzmann]

Hello, I would like to install vCenter 6.7 for Windows unattened. For Version 6.0 and 6.5 this was possible using the following command line:

start /wait \path\to\vCenter-Server\VMware-vCenter-Server.exe /qr CUSTOM_SETTINGS=\path\to\vc.json

Starting with Version 6.7 the installation fails because it complains about the CEIP settings. However they're nowhere documented and an inquiry to the VMware documentation team was fruitless. The error message I'm getting is:

2018-07-01 13:02:49.907+02:00| vcsInstUtil-8217866| E: VM_ValidateCeipValueForSilentInstall: Unable to get 'CEIP_SETTINGS' property: 1603

Has anybody figured out the missing option?

Cheers,

Thomas

[sysadmin_qskill]

Hi Thomas,

i've had the same problem and fixed it with using the existing .json-file at the new templates-folder under the vCenter-Server folder.

Just move to the "<VMware-VIM-al-6.7.0-xxxxxxx>\vCenter-Server\templates\install" folder.

There you'll find 3 templates. I used the "embedded_vc.json" where i only had to enter the host-FQDN within the "appliance.net.pnid", the admins-Password at the "vmdir.password" and at the end of the file you'll find the ceip-Parameters with default-Values "ceip.enabled":true and "ceip.acknowledged":false.

If you change both values to "ceip.enabled":false and "ceip.acknowledged":true you 're able to finish the unattended installation without any error.

Hope this will help

Greetings from the qSkills Sysadmin-team

[glanzmann]

Hello, thank you for the settings. They worked. I added the following settings. The attached vc.json does not even need the hostname specified. It uses the one configured in the system. The system has a static ip and is joined to an active directory previous to vCenter installation.

"ceip": {        
     "ceip.enabled": false,
     "ceip.acknowledged": true
}

Cheers,

Thomas