Installing vCenter on VM?

[Michaelr000]

Hey,
I'm having problems trying to install a trial version of vCenter operations management.
I'm using a Windows 7 PC, running vSphere client (5.0), and after installing PostgreSQL on a VM (CentOS) I tried to deploy the OVF - both on a new VM and directly to the ESX; But I'm getting the following error (screen capture attached).

What am I doing wrong? When I tried googling the issue, it seems to have something to do with vApp not being installed, is this actually the case?

All I'm trying to do is test vCenter as a server monitoring app, but am starting to get frustrated having to set up and install so many stations and applications just to make a trial work.. So any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

[rcporto]

Do you have vCenter Server in your environment ? If not, you will need one to be able to deploy and use vCOPs.

[abhilashhb]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to VMware communities.

There are two concepts you need to understand. vCenter is a management tool that lets you manage multiple ESXi hosts centrally and also adds more features to your virtualization environment.

vCops is an appliance which is another product of VMware that talks to vCenter and monitors the VM's on vCenter.

What you are trying to deploy is not a vCenter server. Its vCops appliance which is a combination of two VM's( A front-end UI server and also a back-end Analytics/DB server). This can only be deployed with a vCenter ( Which also makes sense because if you deploy this you will need vCenter in place to monitor it).

If you intending to test the vCenter server then you are deploying the wrong OVF. If you are intending to test vCops then you will first need a vCenter (Which is either an OVF with vCenter server pre-packaged in it and all you need to do is deploy it, or install it as an application on a windows machine)

I know its a little confusing. Reach out to me if you did not get a clear picture with my explanation.