vCenter Orchestrator: Configure an MS SQL Server database connection

This article discusses how to configure a SQL Server database connection to be used by VMware vCenter Orchestrator. Although this task is not too difficult, there are a few pitfalls that might prevent the successful configuration of the database and connecting to it.

In this example I will show you how to configure the following scenario:

• MS SQL Server 2008 R2;
• Named SQL Server instance;
• Windows integrated authentication;
• Dynamic ports configured;
• vCenter Orchestrator will connect to the database and use Windows integrated authentication.

I will demonstrate you how to configure both the SQL Server database, as well as the vCO connection to this database.

Configuring the SQL Server database

First create a new database in SQL Server and create a Windows AD service account that will be used by vCO. In this example I created the svc_vco domain account; this account is owner of the vCO database in SQL server:

Note that my database server is called ‘DB01’ and I configured a named instance called ‘MSSQLSERVER01’.

The next step is to verify which port is used by the MSSQLSERVER01 instance. The information is available in the SQL Server Configuration Manager:

In this example port 49206 is used by the MSSQLSERVER01 instance.

Note: If you’re using SQL Server Express you first have to configure remote access through TCP/IP, because this is disabled by default.

Now check if Windows Firewall allows remote access to the configured port; if not add a rule to the firewall:

You’re all set now, the next step is to configure vCO.

Configuring the SQL Server connection in vCenter Orchestrator

The SQL database connection is configured through the vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) administrative interface available at https://vco-url:8283/. Log on with the administrative account ‘vmware’, the default password is also set to ‘vmware’. Select the database option and configure the SQL Server connection.

The vCO setup is detailed in the next figure:

Some important notes here:

• Provide the Windows AD user account without the domain name;
• Provide the password and don’t use any special characters (better safe than sorry);
• Provide the hostname of the database server;
• Provide the port number of the named instance you’re using, this is port 49206 as displayed in the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool;
• Provide the database name;
• Don’t provide an instance name. You’ve already configured a port number which points to a specific instance on the SQL Server;
• Provide the domain name, and:
• Check the option ‘use Windows authentication mode (NTLM v2).

After clicking apply, the connection to the database will be initialized. After the connection is successfully initialized, the next step is to set up the default db/table layout in the database. vCO will present a link to execute this step, this will cost less than a minute.

The procedure is now complete and you can start using vCenter Orchestrator.