Install vCenter without DNS
A lot of people believe you cannot install vCenter without a DNS server in the environment. Not quite. It is not ideal, but it works.
A lot of people believe you cannot install vCenter without a DNS server in the environment. Not quite. Installing without DNS is not ideal, but it works. You lose the ability to update vCenter directly and lookup queries will not work, which is what you would expect here.
If you can, install vCenter with a DNS server. But maybe you have a small lab or an isolated cluster you want to manage with vCenter and no DNS server. Or you just want to try a small vCenter in an isolated environment. I did, and I found a few tricks worth following:
Installing vCenter
The vCenter installation itself runs normally until you reach step 9, configuring the network settings.
Leave the FQDN and the DNS entry empty.
The installation continues until you reach stage 2. For some reason the “next” button in the second step, where you set NTP and SSH, is greyed out no matter what you configure:
The fix is to go straight to the vCenter’s IP on port 5480. In my case that would be https://10.24.0.33:5480. From there you can carry on.
The next window asks for the network information. You will not get past it without a system name and a DNS server, because both are mandatory fields. The fix: enter “localhost” as the system name and “127.0.0.1” as the DNS server. That way vCenter can resolve itself, alongside the entry in the hosts file.
After that the installation runs through and your vCenter is installed and started. You cannot add hosts by DNS name, of course, since everything has to go by IP. But if you later decide to run a DNS server after all, you add it in the VAMI (port 5480) and change vCenter’s hostname there.
How to install DNS in a homelab is described here.