This article is subject to frequently change throughout March 2015, so please revisit this article and refresh with Ctrl+F5, to see what's changed since your last visit. And we're all still waiting to see what happens with 365 day licenses for vSphere 6.0 home labs under EVALExperience.
I'm working hard on the full recipe for success, to build up your vSphere 6.0 home lab. The focus of this article is on fresh installs, but you can read all about more complicated upgrade options here and here. Note, while I say fresh install, that doesn't mean you are starting from scratch, if you have existing VMs. Those can easily be added back into your inventory, once you get your vSphere 6.0 environment set up, and any additional drivers you may need for networking and storage.
Overall, vSphere 6.0 is an easier install, once you get to know your way around some of the newness of it all. Installing ESXi 6.0 is much the same as it's been for years, but the vCSA (VMware vCenter Server Appliance) is different, and easier, basically consisting of these 3 steps:
- double-click to mount the VMware-VCSA-all-6.0.0-2562643.iso file (Windows 8 or later)
- install the \vcsa\VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0.exe
- run \vcsa-setup.html to launch your browser, which begins the install wizard for vCSA
This recipe for all the ingredients you'll need for your own awesome home lab setup will be soup-to-nuts thorough, with a focus on simplicity, ease of deployment, and ease of use. Once you see the video, it's all so much more straightforward than all the documentation implies.
Topics will include:
- slick ways to make login easier
- FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) instead of ugly IP addresses...
- create shortcut for your vSphere Web Client on your Taskbar, with no URL or menus cluttering up the top of your valuable browser real estate
What I'm trying to do is get past vCSA's dislike for using DHCP (which is simplest in a home lab to use for that first install), using a custom procedure for renaming the appliance after the initial install, and re-issuing the certificate after the initial deployment. Alternatively, I may just go with the vcsa-cli-installer method.
One barrier has been lack of valid documentation this early on. For example, here's a VMware document that hasn't yet been updated since the 5.5 days. See for yourself, visit this article Error When You Change vCenter Server Appliance Host Name, then simply change the vsphere-60 in the URL to vsphere-55, and it still comes up. Yep, that ain't right, they simply haven't updated it for 6.0 yet. The main page, the VMware vSphere 6.0 Documentation Center, currently shows last updated March 12 2015.
But you don't have to wait until I have the recipe fully documented, and the solution fully baded. Especially if you're just messing around and plan to rebuild from scratch. Keep reading!
[all sections below are currently a work in progress]
Download
VMware vSphere 6.0 is now generally available, here’s how to download it fast
Rufus takes 2 minutes to create a bootable USB flash drive for ESXi installation
Install
The procedure is demonstrated in this rough-cut earlier video, from an earlier build, but it's the same install/configure procedure, if you're ok with going with IP addresses instead of host names:
My revised completely new video will include download, install, and configure, with a twist. I'll be adding tweaks so you have a nice looking vSphere Web Client with a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) for ESXi and vCSA, instead of merely using IP addresses. Yes, it's all about that home network WiFi router, which doesn't do the forward and reverse lookups that VMware expects (in the datacenter). The work arounds are straight-forward.
Configure
The final draft will include references to the optional steps needed to add drivers for typical "whitebox" home-built (unsupported) gear, described here:
For ESXi 6.0, those ESXi 5.1 VIBs for ASMedia SATA ports and Realtek NICs still seem to be working (but unsupported)
Today’s tip is a sneak peek at what’ll probably happen once vSphere 6 finally arrives. Four simple lines of code, and a few minutes to reboot, are all it’s likely to take to get your ASMedia (ASM1061 chipset) AHCI SATA drives visible again. And those Realtek NICs. That’s a relief, ain’t it?
This entire article will, over time, become much like my very popular Sep 30 2013 post: