VMWARE VSPHERE 7.

0:
INSTALL, CONFIGURE, MANAGE

Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server

Inventory
Document Version: 2020-11-04

Copyright © 2020 Network Development Group, Inc.

www.netdevgroup.com

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VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc.

Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
Objectives............................................................................................................................ 3
Lab Topology....................................................................................................................... 4
Lab Settings ......................................................................................................................... 5
1 Create a Datacenter Object ........................................................................................ 6
2 Add your ESXi host to the vCenter Server Inventory................................................ 10
3 Configure ESXi host as an NTP Client........................................................................ 16
4 Create a folder for an ESXi host ................................................................................ 18
5 Create a folder for a Virtual Machine and Virtual Machine Templates ................... 20

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

Introduction

In this lab, you will create and manage the vCenter Server inventory.

Objectives

 Create Datacenter Object

 Add your ESXi host to the vCenter Server Inventory
 View information about the ESXi host
 Configure the ESXi host as an NTP Client
 Create a Folder for the ESXi host
 Create Folders for Virtual Machines and Virtual Machine Templates

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

Lab Topology

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

Lab Settings

The information in the table below will be needed in order to complete the lab. The
task sections below provide details on the use of this information.

Virtual Machine IP Address Account Password

sa-esxi-01 eth0: 172.20.10.51 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-02 eth0: 172.20.10.52 root Train1ng$

sa-esxi-03 eth0: 172.20.10.53 root Train1ng$

sa-aio eth0: 172.20.10.10 sysadmin vmware123

sa-student eth0: 172.20.10.80 sysadmin vmware123

sa-vcsa eth0: 172.20.10.94 sysadmin@vclass.local vmware123

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

1 Create a Datacenter Object

In this task, you will create a data center object named LAB-Datacenter to organize
hosts and virtual machines within the VMware vSphere environment.

1. Launch the sa-student virtual machine to access the graphical login screen.

To launch the console window for a virtual machine, you may access by
either clicking on the machine’s graphic image from the topology page
or by clicking on the machine’s respective tab from the navigation bar.

2. Log in as sysadmin using the password vmware123.

3. Launch the Mozilla Firefox web browser by either clicking on the icon shortcut
found on the bottom toolbar or by navigating to Start Menu > Internet > Firefox
Web Browser.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

4. Notice the homepage is automatically configured to load the URL address of the
VMware vCenter Server Appliance (sa-vcsa virtual machine). Click on the LAUNCH
VSPHERE CLIENT (HTML5) button to launch the vSphere Client.

If you cannot successfully load the VMware Getting Started webpage,

then please wait an additional 3-5 minutes and refresh the page to
continue. During this time, the vCenter Server Appliance is still
booting up and requires extra time to initialize.

5. In the Username text field, type sysadmin@vclass.local and in the Password text
field, type vmware123. Click on LOGIN.

You may ignore the “browser-OS combination” warning message

presented on the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On page and continue
moving forward with the lab.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

6. In the navigator pane, click on the Hosts and Clusters tab.

7. Right-click on the vCenter Server Appliance 172.20.10.94 and select New

Datacenter.

8. In the New Datacenter window, type LAB-Datacenter for the Name and click OK.

9. In the navigator pane, verify that LAB-Datacenter appears.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

10. Leave the VMware vSphere Client open for the next task.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

2 Add your ESXi host to the vCenter Server Inventory

In this task, you will add an ESXi host to the vCenter Server inventory.

1. In the navigator pane, verify that Hosts and Clusters is selected. Right-click LAB-
Datacenter and select Add Host.

2. In the Add Host window, on the Name and location step, enter 172.20.10.53 and
click Next.

3. On the Connection settings step, enter root as the Username and Train1ng$ as the
Password. Click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

4. When prompted with a security alert stating that the certificate store of vCenter
Server cannot verify the certificate, click YES to proceed.

5. Once validated, on the Host summary step, review the information and click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

6. On the Assign license step, select the radio button for VMware ESXi and click Next.

7. On the Lockdown mode step, accept the default, Disabled, and click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

8. On the VM location step, verify LAB-Datacenter is showing and click Next.

9. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

10. Notice the progression in the Recent Tasks pane. Once completed, the ESXi host will
appear underneath the LAB-Datacenter object in the navigator pane. Expand the
LAB-Datacenter object and select 172.20.10.53, followed by clicking on the
Summary tab in the main workspace.

11. Notice the ESXi host information such as CPU, memory, storage, NIC, and virtual
machines.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

12. Click the arrow next to the Hardware pane to view the hardware details of the ESXi
host.

13. Leave the VMware vSphere Client open and continue to the next task.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

3 Configure ESXi host as an NTP Client

In this task, you will configure the ESXi host to use Network Time Protocol (NTP) to
maintain accurate time and date.

1. Select 172.20.10.53 (sa-esxi-03) in the navigator pane and click on the Configure tab
in the main workspace.

2. Under System in the middle pane (scroll down), select Time Configuration and view
the current settings.

3. Scroll down to Network Time Protocol and click Edit.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

4. In the Network Time Protocol window, select Enable to use the Network Time
Protocol (NTP). In the NTP Servers text box, enter 172.20.10.10, followed by
checking the checkbox for Start NTP service. In the NTP Service Startup Policy, select
Start and Stop with host. Click OK.

5. In the Network Time Protocol pane, verify that the NTP client appears as Enabled
and the NTP service is Running from the NTP Server of 172.20.10.10.

6. Leave the VMware vSphere Client open and continue to the next task.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

4 Create a folder for an ESXi host

In this task, you will create a folder called LAB-Servers and add 172.20.10.53 (sa-esxi-
03.vclass.local) to it.

1. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click LAB-Datacenter and select New Folder >
New Host and Cluster Folder.

2. In the New Folder window, type LAB-Servers for the name and click OK.

3. Verify that LAB-Servers appear in the navigation pane.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

4. In the navigator pane, drag 172.20.10.53 (sa-esxi-03) to the LAB-Servers folder.

Once finished, expand the LAB-Servers folder to confirm that sa-esxi-03.vclass.local
host now appears inside the folder.

5. Leave the VMware vSphere Client open and continue to the next task.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

5 Create a folder for a Virtual Machine and Virtual Machine Templates

In this task, you will create virtual machine and template folders.

1. Expand the LAB-Datacenter object in the navigator pane. Right-click on 172.20.10.53

and select New Virtual Machine.

To complete this task, you will create a new virtual machine on sa-
esxi-03 (172.20.10.53) due to sa-esxi-03 not currently having any
virtual machines residing on the host.

2. In the New Virtual Machine window, on the Select a creation type step, select Create
a new virtual machine and click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

3. On the Select a name and folder step, enter Photon as the name and ensure that
LAB-Datacenter is selected for the location. Click Next.

4. On the Select a compute resource step, ensure that 172.20.10.53 is selected and
click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

5. On the Select storage step, select NFS-1 to be the local datastore and click Next.

6. On the Select compatibility step, select ESXi 7.0 and later. Click Next.

7. On the Select a guest OS step, select Linux as the Guest OS Family and VMware
Photon OS (64-bit) as the Guest OS Version. Click Next.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

8. On the Customize hardware, Virtual Hardware tab. Enter 5GB for the hard disk size
and click Next.

9. On the Ready to complete step, review the information and click Finish.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

10. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click LAB-Datacenter and select New Folder >
New VM and Template Folder.

11. In the New Folder window, type LAB-VMs for the name and click OK.

12. Navigate to the VMs and Templates tab in the navigator pane.

13. Expand the LAB-Datacenter object and notice the LAB-VMs folder appears in the
navigator pane.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

14. In the navigator pane, drag Photon to the LAB-VMs folder. Expand the LAB-VMs
folder and verify Photon is showing.

15. On the VMS and Templates tab, right-click LAB-Datacenter and select New Folder >
New VM and Template Folder.

16. In the New Folder window, type LAB-Templates for the name and click OK.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

17. Expand the LAB-Datacenter object and notice the LAB-Templates folder appears in
the navigator pane.

18. Right-click the LAB-VMs folder and notice the available menu commands in the
dropdown menu.

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Lab 07: Creating and Managing vCenter Server Inventory

19. Right-click the LAB-Templates folder and notice the available menu commands in
the dropdown menu.

20. Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters tab in the navigator pane. Right-click the LAB-
Servers folder and notice the available menu commands in the dropdown menu.

21. The lab is now complete; you may end the reservation.

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