6.5.1

Table Of Contents
vCenter Server Appliance Overview 1
The vCenter Server Appliance is a precongured Linux virtual machine, which is optimized for running
VMware vCenter Server
®
and the associated services on Linux.
During the deployment of the appliance, you select a deployment type of vCenter Server with an embedded
Platform Services Controller, Platform Services Controller, or vCenter Server with an external
Platform Services Controller. When you deploy a Platform Services Controller appliance, you can create a
VMware vCenter
®
Single Sign-On™ domain or join an existing domain. For information about the
vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller deployment types and the deployment topologies with
external Platform Services Controller instances, see vSphere Installation and Setup.
The vCenter Server Appliance is supported on VMware ESXi™ 5.5 and later. The appliance package
contains the following software:
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Project Photon OS
®
1.0
n
PostgreSQL database
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vCenter Server 6.5 and vCenter Server 6.5 components
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Platform Services Controller that contains all the necessary services for running vCenter Server such as
vCenter Single Sign-On, License service, and VMware Certicate Authority
For detailed information about the Platform Services Controller, see Platform Services Controller
Administration.
Customization of the vCenter Server Appliance is unsupported except for adding memory, CPU, and disk
space.
The vCenter Server Appliance has the following default user names:
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root user with the password that you set during the deployment of the virtual appliance. You use the
root user to log in to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface and to the appliance Linux
operating system.
I The password for the root account of the vCenter Server Appliance expires after 365 days
by default. For information about how to change the root password and congure the password
expiration seings, see “Change the Password and Password Expiration Seings of the Root User,” on
page 16.
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administrator@your_domain_name which is the vCenter Single Sign-On user with the password and
domain name that you set during the deployment of the appliance.
In vSphere 5.5, this user is administrator@vsphere.local. In vSphere 6.0, when you install vCenter Server
or deploy the vCenter Server Appliance with a new Platform Services Controller, you can change the
vSphere domain. Do not use the same domain name as the domain name of your Microsoft Active
Directory or OpenLDAP domain name.
VMware, Inc.
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