Install guide for SCVMM 2012 SP1

I found quite a few tutorials online for SCVMM 2012 install but nothing useful for 2012 SP1. Most of those people had installed VMM 2012 on Server 2008. The thing is, this newer version is supported only on Windows Server 2012. I am documenting my trials and tribulations here.

My steps:

The official documentation is here. I started with installing a VM with Windows 2012 Server Standard Edition.{I am re-doing the VMM 2012 installation on a physical server. I am updating this posting as I go along with the new installation.}

Pre-installation considerations:

Install VMM on a physical server

Update June 2013:

After I installed VMM on a VM and used it for a couple of months, I have come to the conclusion that this is not a good idea…I mean to have VMM managing the host on which it is running.

Running VMM on a VM inside the host it is managing is a supported configuration. However Microsoft says that do not do anything to the VM running VMM..like try to migrate it or something. I have ran into rather strange behavior from VMM which leads me to believe that this whole idea is not good. Keep it simple…

I think it is best to have VMM on a separate physical server.

Install and configure Cluster

If you plan to eventually setup a cluster IMHO it is best to setup the cluster BEFORE you install VMM in your enterprise. Of course you can use VMM to setup the cluster. However if you are just starting out with clustering and VMM it is best to take it one step at a time.

 

Installing the pre-requisites:

I need to take care of the system requirements first. Looked at the requirements here. Looks like I need to install Windows AIK (WAIK) and Windows ADK and SQL Server.

WAIK installation

The WAIK setup complained that it needs .NET. I downloaded it. However I found out that there is no need. Server 2012 includes .NET Framework as a “Feature” which you can install. You just need the OS installation disk (which is referred below as D:\ drive). Here is what you need to do:

Server manager >> Add Roles and feature >> Next 3 times >> Select .NET Framework 3.5 >> next >> click “Specify an alternate source path” >> D:\sources\sxs >> OK >> Install

After that I started WAIK installation again. This time WAIK did not complain about .NET missing.

Windows ADK

The second requisite is the ADK. I downloaded it, it is a tiny download at 1MB but it will download more on the fly. With the options I checked it said the space needed is around 3 GB.

In the setup wizard, I choose the defaults but unchecked the last option “Microsoft SQL server 2012 Express” because I will be installing the full version later on (for SCVMM). Unchecking it also unchecks “Windows Assessment Services”. I was not sure if I really need it. More info on this feature is here.

By the way, the installation of ADK goes very, very slow. I think my installation took hours! Note: on the physical server, it took less than an hour. strange.

So now that we have ADK and AIK installed the last thing in the software requirement section is SQL Server.

SQL Server installation

Since I am running Server 2012 I will install SQL Server 2012 SP1 Standard Edition.

In the additional info section it says:

When you install SQL Server, select the Database Engine Services and the Management Tools – Complete features.

So I guess this option will come up somewhere in the setup. We shall see…

Steps to install SQL server 2012 SP1:

1. Insert CD (virtually)
2. Run setup
3. From the Planning section, run System Configuration Checker (I got no fails, so we are good to go!)
4. From the Installation Section, I click on “New SQL Server stand-alone installation”
5. It told me that there are two updates available for SQL server. I let it download them and install them.
6. Looks like it runs the “System Configuration Checker” itself as a first step.
7. It got a warning  that the firewall is on. I turned it off and re-run the checker. Everything passed this time.
8. Click Next and choose the first option “SQL Server Feature Installation”
9. On the next page choose Database Engine Services and Management Tools – Complete.  I left the other stuff unchecked….not sure at this point whether we need it or not. I am not a SQL Server expert
10. I changed the location of the installation to D drive.
11. I changed it from default instance to Named Instance, typed SystemCenter there and then it changed the Instance ID automatically to “SYSTEMCENTER”
12. I changed the root directory location to D drive.
13. I left the service accounts to the defaults.
14. I left the Authentication mode to the default – “Windows authentication mode” and I added the local administrators group to the “SQL server administrators” section.
15. Finally we get to the last screen with the “install” button. Press it!
16. 10 minutes later the install process finished successfully.

Installing SCVMM

Now I can follow the actual SCVMM deployment guide

Prerequisite: account creation

First, I created two accounts in AD for SCVMM. One of these accounts is described in the document – Specifying a Service Account for VMM. I called the accounts:

(a) SCVMM Service

This is the account under which the VMM service will run on the SVCMM server. I added it to the local administrators group on the VMM server.

(b) SCVMM Admin

This account will be specified inside VMM to manage the hosts. I added it to the local administrators group on the Hyper-V servers / hosts.

Note that you cannot use the SCVMM Service account to manage the hosts. I made that mistake in my first installation of VMM and had undesirable results. I created simple domain accounts for these and did NOT give them any special permissions in AD.

Prerequisite: Decide on where the encryption keys will be stored

Since I do not have that kind of control over AD here at work, I am not going to configure the DKM as described in this document Configuring Distributed Key Management in VMM. I will just store the encryption keys on the computer on which the SCVMM server.

Run install.

Now that those two things are taken care of we can get to the actual installation as described in Installing System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager

Here is what I did, step by step:

1. Before running setup, I rebooted the VM.
2. On the second screen of the setup wizard, I chose the VMM management server. The VMM console is then automatically selected.
3. On the next page it asks for the product key. I got it from my MSDN. there is only one key for the whole system center suite.
4. I changed the installation  location to D drive.
5. On the database configuration page, I specified:

Server name: SCVMM server’s name

Port: blank

Use the following credentials: unchecked

Instance name: SYSTEMCENTER

New database name: VMM

1. On the next page where it asks to configure service account & distributed key management, I chose:

domain account: [entered the credentials of the SCVMM service account created earlier.

Store my keys in Active Directory: unchecked

1. I took a screenshot of the next screen showing all the ports. I left them as default.
2. I created a new directory D:\VMM Library
3. On the library configuration screen, I changed the “share Location” to D drive and named it “D:\VMM Library” . Having it as the default under c:\programdata did not seem such a good idea to me…since by default c:\programdata directory is hidden.
4. On the final screen, I checked if everything looked OK (it did) and I clicked “Install”.
5. After setup finished, I let it install updates.
6. It needed a reboot after the updates. I did it.
7. That is it, installation is done.

Connecting to the SCVMM console:

Although we installed the SCVMM console on the server, for convenience, I also installed it on my own Windows 7 workstation. I had to install .NET 4 (done by the setup, automatically) and PowerShell 3.0 (manually, downloaded here as a part of WMF 3)

I used the procedure in this document How to Connect to a VMM Management Server by Using the VMM Console to connect to the VMM server remotely, via the console.

When opened the very first time the Console gave me an error, saying that it does not have access to this path: D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\Virtual Machine Manager\bin\AddInPipeline

I used Explorer to open that path and I got a UAC prompt. I clicked on “go ahead” give me permissions and I re-opened VMM console. The error did not come back.

Now that we have installed and connected to SCVMM I have writing another document on how to quickly start using SCVMM.