VMware vSphere 6 - Platform Service Controller Installation

In this article I’m focusing on the installation steps of the vSphere 6.0 Platform Service Controller aka PSC before I install the vCenter Server. It is a pretty straight forward installation and You can easily deploy this and integrate to your new vSphere 6.x environment. There are ways we can maintain the High availability of the PSCs, I’m planing to discuss them in a different post.

Basically, PSC deals with the identity management for the vSphere users and applications. Also, below services are installed with the PSC.

VMware Appliance Management Service (only in Appliance-based PSC)
VMware License Service
VMware Component Manager
VMware Identity Management Service
VMware HTTP Reverse Proxy
VMware Service Control Agent
VMware Security Token Service
VMware Common Logging Service
VMware Syslog Health Service
VMware Authentication Framework
VMware Certificate Service
VMware Directory Service

Below VMware products and components are supported with the PSC

VMware vCenter Server
VMware vCenter Inventory Services
VMware vSphere Web Client
VMware Log Browser
VMware NSX for vSphere
VMware Site Recovery Manager
VMware vCloud Air
VMware vCloud Director
VMware vRealize Automation Center
VMware vRealize Orchestrator
VMware vSphere Data Protection
VMware vShield Manager

You can deploy this as an appliance or a windows based server and it is compatible with both Windows/Appliance based vCenter server.

Requirements when deploying the Appliance-based Platform Services Controller:

Processor – Intel or AMD x64 processor with two or more logical cores, each with a speed of 2 GHz
Memory – 2 GB
Disk storage – 30 GB
Network speed – 1 Gbps

Requirements when deploying the Windows-based Platform Services Controller:

Processor – Intel or AMD x64 processor with two or more logical cores, each with a speed of 2 GHz
Memory – 2 GB
Disk storage – 4 GB
Network speed – 1 Gbps

Ok, Let’s jump in to the installation straight away…

I’m using a Windows 2008 R2 server to install the PSC component. Mount your vSphere 6.x ISO and launch the installation. Select the “vCenter Server for Windows” to start the installation.

Click “Next” in the Welcome window of the installation

Accept the EULA and click “Next” to continue

At the next step you have to select the deployment method (Embedded or External) for your environment. If you select the embedded deployment, your PSC and vCenter server will be sitting on the same server. In my case I need these two components separately and my deployment model is “External Deployment”.

You need to provide your system name/FQDN of your PSC.

I really like the next step as I can specify my own SSO domain when I compare to the vSphere 5.x. Specify your SSO domain name, Password for your SSO Administrator and the Site of your PSC sitting at.