Specifications

Table 4. Up to 200 Hosts and 2000 Powered-On Virtual Machines
Product CPU Memory Disk
vCenter Server 4 4GB 3GB
vSphere Client 1 500MB 1GB
Table 5 summarizes the requirements for an extra-large deployment.
vCenter Server must be hosted on a 64-bit Windows operating system for this configuration.
Table 5. Up to 300 Hosts and 3000 Powered-On Virtual Machines
Product CPU Memory Disk
vCenter Server 4 8GB 3GB
vSphere Client 1 500MB 1GB
Requirements for Installing vCenter Server on a Custom Drive
If you install vCenter Server on the E:\ drive or on any custom drive, note the following space requirements.
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601MB on the custom drive for vCenter Server
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1.13GB on the C:\ drive for Microsoft .NET 3.0 SP1, Microsoft ADAM, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
(optional), and Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
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375MB for the custom drive %temp% directory
vCenter Server Software Requirements
Make sure that your operating system supports vCenter Server.
For a list of supported operating systems, see the vSphere Compatibility Matrixes at
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf on the VMware vSphere
documentation Web site.
vCenter Server Prerequisites
Before installing vCenter Server, review the prerequisites.
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You must have the installation DVD or download the installation ISO image.
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Your hardware must meet the requirements listed in “vCenter Server and vSphere Client Hardware
Requirements,” on page 25 and the required ports must be open, as discussed in Required Ports.
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Your database must meet the database requirements. See vCenter Server Database Patch and
Configuration Requirements and Preparing the vCenter Server Databases.
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Your hardware must meet the vCenter Server hardware requirements.
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If the machine on which you are installing vCenter Server has VirtualCenter installed, you might want to
upgrade instead of performing a fresh installation of vCenter Server.
IMPORTANT If you want to keep your existing VirtualCenter configuration, see the Upgrade Guide.
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There must be no Network Address Translation (NAT) between the vCenter Server system and the hosts
it will manage.
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Create a vCenter Server database, unless you plan to install the bundled SQL Server 2005 Express.
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For the installation of vCenter Server, VMware recommends installing the bundled SQL Server 2005
Express database on one of the supported operating systems. If SQL Native Client is already installed,
uninstall SQL Native Client before you begin the vCenter Server installation.
Getting Started with ESXi InstallableESXi EmbeddedESX
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