I am a bit confused as to how a vCenter Server 6.5 installation works.
I am testing in a lab environment with the following setup:
I have a Windows 10 laptop with VMware Workstation installed.
I have created a virtual machine in Workstation running ESXi 6.5.
I have create a virtual machine in Workstation running Windows Server 2012 R2. I have set up AD and DNS on it.
I have set up IP addresses and hostnames as follows: esxi1.ad.example.com / 192.168.59.128 and win2012.ad.example.com / 192.168.59.129.
I have set up the forward and reverse DNS entries for both machines. From a browser on the Windows Server I can connect to esxi1.ad.example.com
In the Windows Server I ran the vCenter Server 6.5 Appliance ui installer. On the Appliance target page I specified esxi1.ad.example.com as the ESXi host.
On the Configure Network Settings page, it asks for a System name and IP address. I used vc.ad.example.com as the System name and 192.168.59.200 for the IP address. I also set these up in DNS on the Windows Server.
A couple of questions that I have: Since vCenter is being deployed to the ESXi server, does that mean that both vCenter and ESXi are running on the same server but with different IP addresses? Is it okay for the same machine to have two hostnames and two IP addresses?
Also, if vCenter is mainly just for management, but the virtual machines are really stored on the ESXi hosts, why is it that the vCenter needs a lot of RAM? (> 10GB) I would have assumed it would be the other way around.
Answer
I think I have come up with the answer to my questions. Due to the suspended question, I cannot answer it myself, but here is what I think are the answers to my questions. Hopefully it will help someone else.
Question 1: Since vCenter is being deployed to the ESXi server, does that mean that both vCenter and ESXi are running on the same server but with different IP addresses?
Question 2: Is it okay for the same machine to have two hostnames and two IP addresses?
Answer to both questions: I was misunderstanding the deployment process. I was under the assumption that vCenter Server was software that was being installed within the ESXi environment as a kind of add on. Instead, what is happening is that the vCenter Server is being deployed as a virtual machine in the ESXi environment. Of course, since it is a virtual machine it can have its own separate IP address and hostname.