Introduction This How-to is showing you the steps taken to install, migrate, and run Spiceworks (Inventory & Help Desk) on a Vir...
Introduction
This How-to is showing you the steps taken to install, migrate, and run Spiceworks (Inventory & Help Desk) on a Virtual Machine with Server 2012 OS. Using vSphere to create a new Spiceworks Server with custom settings, then installing the Spiceworks application onto the new server and finally migrating the old data to the new server will all done in a step by step format with screenshots to explain the steps at certain points.
If you have any suggestions or critics, please message me so that I may edit this How-To to help other people.
Steps (24 total)
Open the vSphere client and select the Host you want to create your new Virtual Machine on. In my example, I used the host that has SSDs as the Hard Drives. In our environment we have a total of 4 hosts, two that are typical spinning disks and two that are all SSDs.
Once you determine what host to have the new VM located on, you will right-click on the host and select "New Virtual Machine".
You will want to select a "Custom" configuration at this step, this allows you to edit more settings than a "Typical" configuration will allow.
At this step, you will select where it will be located, in my example, it is located at our root which is called ABCD. I have named our new server Spiceworks for easy identification.
At this step you will want to select a destination storage for the virtual machine files. For our selection we have used VMHost1. In the picture example provided, it does say that they are Non-SSD. That is incorrect and is a bug in the software and the servers that we have installed.
Pretty self explanatory, will want to decide what Virtual Machine Version you will use. For my install I am using Version 8 that will run on ESXi 5.0 and later.
Select which operating system you will want to use for this server, I have chosen Windows Server 2008 for my install.
Select the number of virtual CPUs for the virtual machine. In my setup, I have chosen 1 Virtual Socket and 2 Cores per Virtual Socket.
Per Spiceworks recommendations, I have chosen to allocate 6GB of RAM for this install. You can base this off your amount of admins and devices.
This will determine which network connections will be used by the VM. For my example I have chosen VM Network with the VMXNET3 Adapter.
Which type of SCSI Controller will you use, in my example I have used the LSI Logic SAS SCSI Controller.
This will be the option that will allow you to decide which disk to use to store the information. Since the Hosts I am using are built with SSDs, I have said to create a new virtual disk.
Since you chose Create a New Virtual Disk in the previous step, you will want to create the new virtual disk. I have allocated 120GB of storage for the disk, gave it a Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Disk Provisioning, and then I am storing it with the Virtual Machine to be able to utilize the SSDs on the Host.
Not much is needed here, but the options chosen is the SCSI (0:0) Virtual Device Node.
Once you have your settings done, you are now ready to complete the setup and let vSphere set it up for you. Once it is set up, you will need to go and edit settings
Once vSphere has finished setting up your new server, you will need to go edit a few settings. Go to the new SpiceWorks server and under the Summary Tab, select Edit Settings.
At this step, you will want to be on the Hardware Tab and select CD/DVD drive 1 and on the right side under Device Type, select Datastore ISO File. This is my example, so if your ISO is stored somewhere else, then you will want to select where it is stored.
The final setting before Powering On is that you will want to go the Network adapter 1 and under Device Status select Connected and Connect at power on. Once that is finished you will want to now select power on and then Open Console and then load up your OS of your choice from the ISO that you selected in Step 16.
Once you OS is loaded and you have logged in. You will now want to set a static IP for the machine along with checking for any Updates for the OS and letting them install. You may need to join the computer to your domain along with verifying the computer name of it.
Once you have done that, go ahead and install the Spiceworks application and if you are going to be migrating information you do not want to complete the installation yet. Let it do the initial set up to set up the port number, but do not open up the application and finalize the install.
If you are setting up a new install, then you can complete the install and select which port you want to use and finish up.
The following steps will be based off of this how-to (http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/295-move-your-spiceworks-installation) I am only using the information in that how-to in this one to give you one single page of steps to go through. All credit is given to Johnathan at Spiceworks for his How-To.
1. The first step for data migration is to Navigate to "Settings > Backup Configuration" Select a backup location, or note the default location so that you can later retrieve your backup files. Click "Backup Now".
If Spiceworks is running, stop Spiceworks by right-clicking the system tray icon and selecting "Exit", or, if Spiceworks is running as a service, stop the service.
CENTRAL INSTALLATION: You also need to take all of your Remote Collectors offline to be absolutely sure you don't miss any tickets/updates.
Navigate to the Spiceworks directory on the new installation and delete the "data" and "db" folders.
Find the zip file created when you backed up Spiceworks and extract the "data" and "db" folders contained within. Move these folders into the new Spiceworks installation's folder. When you start up Spiceworks next, your old database will be waiting for you.
REMOTE COLLECTORS: You need to completely uninstall Spiceworks from the old location before bringing the new installation online. It is very important that your Spiceworks installation from the old location never be online at the same time as the new location. Once you bring the Remote Collector back online in the new location, it should connect to your central installation automatically.
First, bring your Central Installation back online. Then start up your Remote Collectors and Agents again. Now you'll need to access each of the Remote Collectors and Agents, and then update the host name or IP Address that they use to access your Central Installation. Once you get those updated, the Remote Collectors and Agents should connect again without you having to enter the authorization code again.
All of your settings will stay intact when you move your installation, except the backup settings. They revert to default. If you have customized your backup, you'll need to update this after you perform the move.
Conclusion
With this set up I have 6 total technicians, AD scanning, and a Full Network scan that has 152 devices. So far it has been working very smoothly with almost no delay or hangups.
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