Welcome to Part 3 of our vSphere 5.1 installation.

So what does the vCenter Inventory Service actually do?

vCenter Inventory Service reduces direct client requests to the vCenter server with query caching, reducing the load on core vCenter Server processes.

The main use case of the vCenter Inventory Service is to manage the vSphere Web Client inventory objects and property queries that the client requests when users navigate the vSphere environment.

The vSphere Web Client requests only information viewed on the screen, so navigation is more efficient.

In vCenter Server 5.0, vCenter Inventory Service was a separate process. With the updated vCenter Server, it is now a separate independent component and can be offloaded to a separate server or closer to the vSphere Web Client. This reduces traffic and improves response times.

There is not much more to say about this other than to get on with installing it..

1. Kick off the installer for vCenter Inventory Service and Click Next.

2. Read and Accept the license agreement. Click Next.

3. Change your installation path as required. Click Next. 

4. Enter the FQDN for the inventory service.

(e.g. vcenter1.vmadmin.local) it's hidden here as it's a customer install! 

5. Keep the ports as their defaults. Click Next. 

6. Select the appropriate JVM memory size for your expected end goal deployment size.

7. Enter your Single Sign On (SSO) username/password and lookup service URL:

e.g.

admin@system-domain

P@sword1

https://vcenter1.vmadmin.local:7444/lookupservice/sdk

8. The installer will generate and install a self-signed SSL cert. Click Install Certificates.

9. Click install

10. And after a few short moments the vCenter Inventory Service will complete installing. Very simple, now onto the vCenter Server install in the next part...

• vSphere 5.1 - Part 1 - ESXi Server 5.1 Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 2 - vCenter Single Sign On (SSO) Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 3 - vCenter Inventory Service Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 4 - vCenter Server Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 5 - vSphere Client Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 6 - vSphere Web Client Install
• vSphere 5.1 - Part 7 - vSphere Update Manager Install