VMware Labs released a new Fling called vCenter 5.1 Pre-Install Check Script. The download is available as zip package and the total size is about 1MB.

Quote taken from the Fling page:

This is a PowerShell script written to help customers validate their environment and assess if it is ready for a 5.1.x upgrade. The script checks against known misconfiguration and issues raised with VMware Support.

This script checks the Windows Server and Active Directory configuration and provides an on screen report of known issues or configuration issues, the script also provides a text report which can help with further trouble shooting.

Sounds great doesn’t it? The script automatically performs several checks and provides you with clear information if you are “ok to go” or not :-). I can only say thanks to everyone who helped writing this script (probably Alan Renouf all alone but maybe PowerCLI man helped as well?) as I will find it useful and I hope that whenever a new VMware release comes out this script will also get some love :-).

The checks!

• Operating System Checks
• Active Directory Domain Checks
• Active Directory Forest Checks
• Time Synchronization Checks
• Domain Name System (DNS) Resolution Checks
• Port Checks
• Domain Controller Checks
• vCenter Server Authentication Checks

Requirements

• Windows 2003/ Windows 2008/2008 R2 on 64bit in a domain environment
• .Net Framework 3.5.0 or above
• PowerShell 2.0 or above
• PowerShell must be able to run scripts (Execution Policy must be assigned correctly)
• PowerCLI 5.1 is required for an upgrade scenario
• PowerShell must be launched as Administrator
• Run in 64 Bit PowerShell (Do not run in PowerShell (x86))

Installation

The installation is very easy. A run down list can be found at the instruction tab at the fling page.

If you need more information make sure to check out the video released by Alan Renouf.