Step one in our step-by-step VM installation process is to make a pre-installation checklist with important information.
Before you even think about installing any software, make a checklist. The checklist will save you hours of frustration later on when the troubleshooting begins, which believe me, you will troubleshoot a lot while performing the simplest VM install.
I’ve found VMware documentation seriously lacking on this important step. We will go through our list of what you need to know during the install.
VMware ESX Server Pre-install Checklist:
1. Is your hardware supported? Check the HCL.
2. How many NICs will you have per host?
3. Is your network setup?
4. Is your DNS setup?
5. Make a list of name for your host servers. FQDN are required.
6. Is your storage configured right (SAN or NAS). iqn’s, igroups, LUNS, etc…
7. Do you have servers for running the VirtualCenter and MS SQL?
8. Do you have a list of IP addresses for your virtual networks?
9. Is your external network configured right? (VLANS, Routing)
10. Do you have the right license for your software?
11. Will you setup a license server for Flex licenses?
12. What patches do you need on your ESX host?
13. How big and how many LUNs of storage do I need?
14. What are best practices for installing ESX?
15. What are …
This is only the beginning. What else should be on this list?
Originally posted 2008-05-23 17:27:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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