Installing vCenter server has come a long way since the early days of building and configuring a Windows server. Most of the issues I recall were around databases, either running out of space when using SQL express or remembering to configure the ODBC settings before installing vCenter. Fortunately, things have moved on since then and almost all deployments we complete here at ComputerWorld now use the vCenter Server Appliance. This is a preconfigured virtual appliance running Linux (Project Photon OS) that has been optimised specifically for vCenter services. The appliance can be deployed in several different sizes (depending on the number of hosts or virtual machines you need to support) and uses an embedded vpostgres database. In terms of scale it can support anything up to 2000 hosts or 35000 virtual machines per appliance. If you’re still attached to the Windows version of vCenter then it’s worth noting the next version of vSphere will be the last release of the Windows vers