{"id":2207,"date":"2015-08-08T17:42:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T15:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/possiblelossofprecision.net\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2021-05-15T11:46:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T09:46:37","slug":"deploy-vcenter-appliance-vcsa-6-0-from-the-command-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/possiblelossofprecision.net\/?p=2207","title":{"rendered":"Command-line deploy vCenter appliance (VCSA) 6.0 on a Linux machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up to version 5.5 a vCenter appliance was usually deployed by importing the corresponding ovf template that could be downloaded from the VMware website. That process changed with version 6.0 since there is no longer an ovf template<\/a>. Instead, VMWare provides and ISO image<\/a> that contains the necessary data and tools to deploy a vCenter appliance, even directly from the command line.<\/p>\n

After downloading the ISO image file from the my vmware portal<\/a> mount it, e.g. to \/mnt<\/code><\/p>\n

\r\n# mount -o loop \/var\/lib\/libvirt\/images\/VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-3343019.iso \/mnt\/\r\n<\/pre>\n
The vcsa command line deployment tool can be found at vcsa-cli-installer\/lin64\/vcsa-deploy<\/code>. Since the available options and arguments to this tool are tucked away in one of the many vCenter documentation pdfs<\/a>, here’s the output of vcsa-deploy --help<\/code><\/p>\n
\r\n$ vcsa-cli-installer\/lin64\/vcsa-deploy --help\r\nusage: vcsa-deploy install [-h] [--template-help] [-v] [-t]\r\n                           [--log-dir LOG_DIR] [--verify-only]\r\n                           [--skip-ovftool-verification] [--no-esx-ssl-verify]\r\n                           [--sso-ssl-thumbprint SSL-SHA1-THUMBPRINT]\r\n                           [--accept-eula]\r\n                           template\r\n\r\nDeploy vCSA to a remote host.\r\n\r\noptional arguments:\r\n  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.\r\n\r\nOther Arguments:\r\n  --template-help       Print out the help for template settings.\r\n  -v, --verbose         Debug information will be displayed in the console. If you set this parameter, you cannot set --terse.\r\n  -t, --terse           Only warning and error information will be displayed in the console. If you set this paramter, you cannot set --verbose.\r\n  --log-dir LOG_DIR     Directory for log and other output files.\r\n  --verify-only         Perform only the basic template verification and OVF Tool parameter verification, but do not deploy the vCenter Server Appliance.\r\n  --skip-ovftool-verification\r\n                        Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance directly through OVF Tool without performing parameter verification. Basic template verification will still be performed.\r\n  --no-esx-ssl-verify   Skip the SSL verification for ESXi connections.\r\n  --sso-ssl-thumbprint SSL-SHA1-THUMBPRINT\r\n                        Validates server certificate against the supplied SHA1 thumbprint.\r\n  --accept-eula         Accept the end-user license agreement. This argument is required to deploy the appliance.\r\n\r\nRequired Arguments:\r\n  template              Path of a JSON file that describes the vCenter Server Appliance deployment procedure.\r\n\r\nUse --template-help for a list of template settings.\r\n\r\nThe exit codes and their meanings are:\r\n0: Command ran successfully.\r\n1: Runtime error.\r\n2: Validation error.\r\n<\/pre>\n
You can find sample json templates for the deployment in vcsa-cli-installer\/templates\/install\/<\/code>. The options should be quite self-explanatory and cover<\/p>\n