VMware’s VCSA 6.0 brings a lot of enhancements compared to previous versions. I would seriously consider deploying VCSA in a production environment in order to replace the Windows flavor. For those not familiar with VCSA, this is the virtual appliance option to deploy vCenter in an environment. It reduces the time needed to deploy vCenter and offers an integrated database for no additional cost. Although this post may not be entirely technical, it will allow you to be aware of possible constraints that will prevent you from deploying VCSA before you invest too much time on it.

One of the great things about deploying VCSA over the Windows vCenter is that you will reduce the cost by not deploying a Windows VM as well as having to purchase an MSSQL license. VCSA sounds great so far, but there are some gaps that you need to be aware of before deploying this in an environment.

 

Some of the shortcomings of VCSA are primarily related to its nature of not being a Windows VM. For some deployments Windows vCenters have been used to also host the VUM (Update Manager) components, as well as programs that provide additional capabilities to the virtual environment such as VSC for NetApp storage, among others. This means that you would still need to deploy a Windows VM to host VUM as well as VSC in this case. Even though you would still be deploying such VM, the need for a MSSQL server/instance is not required which translates in savings.

Another aspect to keep in mind is the installation and migration from previous versions. There is no in-place upgrade from previous versions, but migrations are possible. With this in mind, you may want to consider to just start with a new, fresh environment. I would. Same applies to the Windows flavor. The installation method now comes as an ISO image. This may cause some confusion. In order to deploy VCSA, the ISO is mounted from a Windows system (can be your computer) and installation can be done remotely.

Before installation, make sure you install the Client Integration Plugin located within the ISO under the vcsa folder.

 

 

 

Start the installation by launching the vcsa-setup.html file from the ISO. A Web UI opens up after a few seconds, and gives you the option to install and ‘Upgrade” (migrate). During installation, just provide the target Host information, and the rest of the information needed for the installation. Make sure the VCSA appliance has a proper network connection and you can reach it from the computer deploying the appliance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both Windows and appliance vCenter offerings have the same scalability numbers as it relates to hosts, VMs, clusters, etc.

In conclusion, VCSA is a great choice for vCenter, but just be aware of some of the constraints of not using the Windows option. By the way the Web UI in vSphere 6 is soooo much faster!!! I’m just saying.