In order to install the 4 components of vCenter (SSO, Web Client, Inventory Service, and vCenter Server) onto a secondary drive on the same Server, you must perform a “Custom Install”. This guide will walk you through the process of installing each of these components as well as SQL 2008 Express to the secondary drive of a Server. This can also be used to install the individual components on separate servers. In total, this is just over 100 steps to walk through so it will take some time.
Prerequisites:
1. Create a new virtual machine and add it to the domain
2. Add a second hard disk to install vCenter on
3. Add the update manager and vCenter service domain users as a local admins (vudatemanager, vmwareservice for this writing)
4. Mount the ISO for vCenter 5.5
5. Ensure User Account Control is turned off and the server has been rebooted (SQL will fail without this)
Install:
1. Open computer, right click on the VMware VIM disk and choose “Open”

2. Navigate to \redist\SQLEXPR and double click “SQLEXPR_x64_ENU”

3. After files are extracted, choose “New installation or add features to an existing installation”

4. Check the box to accept the license terms and click “Next”

5. Uncheck “SQL Server Replication” and change the share feature directories to the “D:\” drive and click “Next”

6. Name the Instance and change the instance root directory to the D:\ drive. Click “Next”

7. SQL Database Engine can run as Network Service, but I prefer using a named account. Click “Next”

8. Click on the “Data Directories” tab to ensure all directories are pointed at the secondary drive

9. Click on the “Account Provisioning” tab and change the authentication to “Mixed Mode”. Enter an “sa” password (save it immediately), then add any SQL Admins that are required and click “Next”

10. Click “Next” through Error Reporting screen
11. Click “Close” once the installation finishes
12. Click Start, then type “cmd”, right-click on cmd.exe and choose “Run as administrator”

13. Ensure your current path is “C:\Windows\system32” and type “sqlcmd.exe -S DEN-vCenter01\VCENTERSQLEXPR” (This is to connect to the instance named “VCENTERSQLEXPR” on the server “DEN-vCenter01” which is the server I am currently connected to)

14. Run the following commands pressing “enter” after each line (this will create the vCenter Database, add domain\vmwareservice as a use and db_owner, then add as user and db_owner of the msdb database)
CREATE DATABASE [vCenterDB]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [vCenterDB] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 100
GO
ALTER DATABASE [vCenterDB] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO
USE [vCenterDB]
GO
CREATE USER [domain\vmwareservice] FOR LOGIN [domain\vmwareservice]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', 'domain\vmwareservice'
GO
USE msdb
GO
CREATE USER [domain\vmwareservice] FOR LOGIN [domain\vmwareservice]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', 'domain\vmwareservice'
GO

15. Type “exit” and then close CMD window
16. Login as the vCenter Service account which should be added as a local administrator
17. Go to start, administrative tools, and chooce “Data Source (ODBC)”

18. Click the “System DSN” tab and click “Add”

19. Choose “SQL Server Native Client 10.0” and click “Finish”

20. Enter a useful name, description and browse for the local Instance

21. Choose “With Integrated Windows authentication” and click “Next”

22. Change the default database to the newly created vCenterDB and click “Next”

23. Click “Finish”

24. Click “Test Data Source” to ensure connection then click “OK” and “OK”

(Running the vCenter Components install failed when logged in as the VMware Service account for me so the rest of these steps can be performed by another admin account for this server.)
25. Open computer and double-click on the VMware VIM disc

26. Click “vCenter Single Sign-On” under “Custom Install” and click “Install”

27. Click “Next” for vCenter Single Sign-On

28. Accept the license agreement and click “Next”

29. Review the SSO information and check the box for “Add [DOMAIN] as a Native Active Directory identity source” and click “Next”

30. Choose “vCenter Single Sign-On for your first vCenter Server” and click “Next”

31. Enter the password for the local account for SSO (this is not the domain admin or your own account, this is a local account to administer SSO in the event the domain is unavailable). Save the password immediately and click “Next”

32. Enter a site name (if needed) and click “Next”

33. Note the HTTPS port and click “Next”

34. Change the destination folder to the secondary drive (D: for this writing) and click “Next”

35. Review the options and click “Install”

36. Click “Finish” when it’s done installing

37. Now click on “vSphere Web Client” under “Custom Install” and click “Install”

38. Choose “English” and click “OK”

39. Click “Next”

40. Accept the license agreement and click “Next”

41. Change the install directory to the “D:\” drive and click “Next”

42. Note the web client ports and click “Next”

43. Enter the password for the administrator@vsphere.local account and click “Next”

44. Click “Yes” for the SSL fingerprint
45. Click “Install certificates” when you see the “Certificate Installation for Secure Connection”

46. Click “Install”

47. Click “Finish”

48. Click “OK” for this message about access time for the Web Client

49. Click on “vCenter Inventory Service” under “Custom Install” then click “Install”

50. Choose “English” and click “OK”

51. Click “Next” to begin the Inventory Service installation

52. Accept the license agreement and click “Next”

53. Change the install directory to the “D:\” drive and click “Next”

54. Ensure the FQDN is correct and click “Next”

55. Note the ports and click “Next”

56. Select the appropriate Inventory size and click “Next”

57. Enter the password for the administrator@vsphere.local account and click “Next”

58. Click “Yes” for the SSL fingerprint
59. Click “Install” to begin installation

60. Click “Finish” once the installation is complete

61. Click “vCenter Server” under “Custom Install” and then click “Install”

62. Choose “English” and click “OK”

63. Click “Next” to begin installation wizard

64. Accept the license agreement and click “Next”

65. Enter the license key (if available) and then click “Next”

66. Click “Use an existing supported database” and select the ODBC connection created earlier and click “Next”

67. Click “Next”

68. If the JDBC URL fails, restart the SQL Service (Administrative Tools -> Services and locate “SQL Server (InstanceName)”) on the local server and attempt the connection again

69. Enter your password to run the vCenter service (but we’ll change this after creation)

70. Select “Create a standalone VMware vCenter Server instance” and click “Next”

71. Note the provisioned ports and click “Next”

72. Select the appropriate inventory size and click “Next”

73. Enter the administrator@vsphere.local SSO password and click “Next”

74. Click “yes” for the SSL fingerprint
75. Click “Next” to register administrator@vsphere.local as an Administrator

76. Confirm the vCenter Inventory URL and click “Next”

77. Change the installation to the “D:\” drive and click “Next”

78. Click “Install”

79. Once installation completes, click “Finish”

80. Click Start, Administrative Tools, then choose “Services”

81. Locate “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service, right-click and choose “Properties”

82. Click on the “Log On” tab and then click on the “Browse” button

83. Change the “Location” to your domain then enter the name of the user account that will run the vCenter Service (vmwareservice for this writing) and click “OK”

84. Enter the password for this account and then click “OK”

85. Click “OK” to grant log on as a service rights then click “OK” about it not taking affect until a service restart

86. Locate the “VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices” service and change it’s logon account to same account we just used for the VirtualCenter Server service (vmwareservice for this writing)

87. Right-click on “VMware VirtualCenter Server” service and choose “Restart”. You will be prompted that the “Vmware VirtualCenter Management Webservices” needs to be restarted as well. Click “Yes” for that prompt


88. After the services restart, open your browser and connect to https:// IPofvCenter:9443/vsphere-client and login as administrator@vsphere.local with the password assigned earlier
89. Once logged in, click on “Administrator” on the left pane

90. Click on “Users and Groups” under “Single Sign-On”

91. Click the “Groups” tab then click on”Administrators” under “Group Name”

92. Click the “Add Member” button under “Group Members”

93. Change the Domain to your domain, then search for the Active Directory user or group to be added as an Administrator. Click the user/group then click the “Add” button followed by “OK”

94. Click the “Home” button towards the top left corner

95. Click on “vCenter”

96. Click on “vCenter Servers”

97. Click on your vCenter server

98. Click the “Manage” tab followed by “Permissions”

99. Click the “Add Permission” button

100. Click the “Add” button towards the lower left then search for the Active Directory user/group to be added as a vCenter Administrator (ensure the Domain is set to your domain). Click the user/group, then click “Add” followed by “OK”

101. Changed “Assigned Role” to “Administrator” from the drop-down and then click “OK”

At this point your vCenter server is installed and configured with an Administrator account added for SSO as well as vCenter itself. To install the Update Manager service, click here to view the steps to install and configure. Your steps will differ as those instructions are for connecting to a mirrored database for Update Manager, but the rest of the steps are similar. You will just need to provision a database and grant the update manager user account db_owner to msdb and the Update Manager database. This can be done the same way as in step 14, just change the database name and the user name.
To complete the vCenter configuration (create a datacenter, add hosts), click here to open the step-by-step guide and scroll to step 44.