Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Make sure you read over the vCenter Orchestrator 5.5 release notes for the full listing of new
features, especially if you're migrating from vCO 4.2.
x
to vCO 5.5.
Understanding vCenter Orchestrator Prerequisites
Because vCO is installed with vCenter Server, many of the prerequisites for vCO are the same as
for vCenter Server. Like vCenter Server, vCO runs on any x64 Windows server. Also like vCen-
ter Server, vCO requires a separate backend database. This backend database must be separate
from the vCenter Server backend database.
vCO can leverage the following supported databases:
◆
Microsoft SQL Server Express for small deployments
Microsoft SQL Server 2003 SP3 (Standard or Enterprise), 32-bit or 64-bit
◆
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (SP1 or SP2, Standard or Enterprise), 32-bit or 64-bit
◆
Oracle 10g (Standard or Enterprise) Release 2 (10.2.0.3.0), 32-bit or 64-bit
◆
◆
Oracle 11g (Standard or Enterprise) Release 1 (11.1.0.7), 32-bit or 64-bit
MySQL and PostgreSQL are also supported but only for testing and evaluation purposes.
Use a Separate Physical Server for the Orchestrator Database
Because of CPU and memory usage, VMware recommends placing the vCO database on a separate
machine from the vCO server. h ese machines should reside in the same datacenter for high-speed
LAN connectivity.
If you are planning on using an Oracle database, you must download the Oracle drivers and
copy them to the appropriate locations; the vCO installer does not do this for you. For more
complete information on exactly how this is accomplished, refer to the
vCO
Installation
and
Coni guration
Guide
available from VMware's website at
vCO also requires a working LDAP server in your environment. Supported LDAP serv-
ers include OpenLDAP, Novell eDirectory, Sun Java Directory Server, and Microsoft Active
Directory.
If you want to set up vCO cluster mode, you'll need to ensure that the database can accept
multiple connections so it can accept connections from each vCO server.
After you verify that you meet all these prerequisites, you are ready to get started coni gur-
ing vCenter Orchestrator.
Confi guring vCenter Orchestrator
vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is arguably the most versatile and powerful of the automation tech-
nologies discussed in this chapter. To take advantage of that functionality, often considerable
