After running the below, you’ll be prompted to enter the password for the root account for the target ESXi node. The -verify-only switch determines that we just want to validate the configuration file and the details for the target ESXi node are correct.
With these switches we are acknowledging the CEIP ( -acknowledge-ceip), accepting the End User License Agreement ( -accept-eula-no-esx-ssl-verify).
Run the following command to perform a verification of the configuration file.
This step is absolutely optional, you can just skip straight to deploying if you like, but I wanted to show that there is functionality to validate the file prior to attempting to deploy the VCSA.
Run the following command to show the help and available options for the install configuration of the tool: Open up a command prompt and browse to the following location, where the drive represents the VCSA ISO file we mounted earlier (for me this is E:) - E:\vcsa-cli-installer\win32 Now that we have a JSON file that specifies the configuration, we can dive into running the CLI utility to verify the data in the configuration file is correct and then move onto deploying the appliance. The vSphere 6.5 documentation contains information for all of the settings that can be used within the JSON file. Make sure to put the comma on the line above the NTP.Servers entry and save the JSON file. I’ve also entered in a section for the NTP server as well, which I recommend you do too. I’ve put the output of my completed JSON file below. Although you can open in a text editor, I came across a neat JSON online editor ( ) that I show you in my YouTube clip as well. I recommend watching the video at the start of this post as I walk through each of the settings. There is a bit of a description for each setting as to what is required. With the JSON configuration files, you can go ahead and open these in any text editor to make the changes required. I’m going to copy this file from the ISO into C:\temp so I can edit it. In this walkthrough we’re going to use the first template, which is embedded_vCSA_on_ESXi.json. Head into the install folder and you will see the JSON templates provided by VMware.Īs you can see, VMware have provided template files for a number of deployment scenarios. The CLI tool can be used to perform a new installation, a migration from Windows VC to the appliance as well as an upgrade. Inside the templates folder, there are subfolders for install, migrate and upgrade. Let’s dive into the templates folder and take a look, as this is where the example JSON configuration files are installed. Inside there, you’ll find folders for Linux, Mac and Windows, as well as a templates folder. If we mount the ISO file and then open it, you’ll see a folder named vcsa-cli-installer. Next, let’s take a look at the VCSA ISO file that I’ve downloaded from VMware. For this walkthrough I’m naming the appliance .au at the IP address 192.168.0.150. The first thing I do before deploying any appliance is making sure there is a DNS record with forward and reverse records.
In the steps below I’ll show you where to enter the NTP settings into the JSON configuration file. In my experience, DNS and NTP are the two biggest causes of issues when performing a deployment or upgrade. One thing to note is that I don’t think any of the template files have the NTP server defined. The CLI deployment is fully supported by VMware in 6.5 and they have also done a great job of providing a number of JSON template files depending on your deployment scenario. A JSON file is used to define the configuration of the node and then a one liner performs the deployment and configuration of the node without the normal GUI “Next Next” trek. After playing with the CLI a little in the lab, it has become my preferred deployment method over the GUI. The VCSA can be deployed using either the new GUI installer or by CLI from Windows, Mac and Linux machines.