Automated VCenter install (lab)

I’m trying to keep my home lab pretty automated. One of the things i’m always (well occasionally )trying out is new vCenter installs. In order to speed things up I have the following little powershell script to remove the vCenter Server application and the vCenter Client prior to automatically re-installing them.

This script below uses defaults for the install. It’s possible to completely script the install which is useful if you have a corporate standard configuration. All the details can be found here.

Anyway, here is the script – i’ve called it the totally imaginative name of resetvc.ps1 – don’t run it in your production environment unless you know what you’re doing

(get-wmiobject -computername . -class Win32_Product -Filter "NAME='VMware vCenter Server'" ).Uninstall()
(get-wmiobject -computername . -class Win32_Product -Filter "NAME='VMware vSphere Client 4.1'" ).Uninstall()
start-process -wait -filepath z:\vpx\VMware-vcserver.exe -argumentlist '/q /s /w /L1033 /v" /qr DB_SERVER_TYPE=Bundled FORMAT_DB=1"'
start-process -wait -filepath z:\vpx\VMware-viclient.exe -argumentlist '/q /s /w /L1033 /v" /qr INSTALL_VIUPDATE=1"'


Notes: First 2 lines uninstall the vCenter Server and the vSphere Client – just ignore the error messages if this is the first time you’ve installed the vCenter Server etc. The third line installs the vcenter server from the iso which for me is my z:. Lucky last, the vSphere Client is installed – including in this case the Host Update utility.

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