System Center 2012: App Controller - Installation

This blog post will provide the information and steps required to install System Center App Controller 2012 into your private cloud environment and configure the private cloud.

Please refer System Requirements for the hardware and software requirements needed to install SCAC 2012.

You can either use a physical or virtual machine that meets the above requirements. The machine that I am installing onto is a virtual Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 server on Microsoft Hyper-V. You need to have System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 already installed into your environment.

Now you need to install the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Console onto the SCAC 2012 server.

Copy the SCVMM 2012 media to your System Center App Controller 2012 server and then right mouse click on the 'setup.exe' file and select 'Run as Administrator' to begin the SCVMM 2012 console install.

Click Yes on the UAC Prompt

Now click on the 'Install' option to continue. Select only the 'VMM Console' option and then click 'Next'

Agree with the terms and conditions and click 'Next' again

Click Next on Customer Experience Improvement Program page.

Choose the Installation Location and then click 'Next'

Leave the port configuration as it is and click 'Next'

Click on 'Install' to begin the SCVMM 2012 console installation

Once completed, the below screen showing a successful install of the console comes.

Once the SCVMM 2012 Administrator Console has been installed, make sure that you have a pre-installed SQL 2008 instance either locally or remotely on a separate SQL 2008 server.

As per the recommendations, I have installed a new SQL 2008 R2 instance for System Center App Controller 2012 on my virtual SQL 2008 R2 server.

Browse to the SCAC 2012 installation media, right mouse click on the 'AppController.RTM' application and then select 'Run as Administrator' to begin the installation

Click Yes on the UAC prompt.

Click on the 'Install' option from the splash screen below

The initial pre-requisite check should begin and if you don't have the .NET Framwork 4.0 installed, it will ask you if you want the installer to automatically install it now

When the .NET Framework 4.0 installation is complete, the App Controller setup will continue

Enter your product registration information and then click 'Next'

Agree with the terms of the licence agreement and then click 'Next'

Now SCAC 2012 will perform another pre-requisite check and will come back to you with a list of software that is missing and that needs to be installed. The pre-requisite check runs and founds that the Web Server (IIS) role missing. The SCAC 2012 installer will identify this as missing and will then add this role as part of the installation process. 

Click ‘Install’ to kick off the missing pre-requisite installation

Select the installation location and then click 'Next'

On the Configure services page, specify the account that will be used by App Controller services. You can configure App Controller services to use either the Network Service account or a domain account.

You can also choose the port for internal communication here too

On the Configure website page, specify the following:

• IP address: Select an IP address from the IP address list or type an IP address that users can use to access this site.

• Port: Type the port on which HTTP.sys must listen for requests made to this website. If you specify a port different from the default port (443 for HTTPS), clients must specify the port number in requests to the server or they will not connect to the Web site.

• SSL certificate: Select whether you want App Controller Setup to generate a self-signed certificate or use a previously imported certificate for SSL.

Note: To add or configure server certificates, use the Server Certificates feature in IIS Manager.
If you use a self-signed certificate, the certificate must be added to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store of all computers that will access the App Controller website. Some browsers will fail to display App Controller if the certificate is not trusted. It is recommended that you use a certificate from a trusted certification authority instead of using a self-signed certificate.

The port that you assign during the installation of App Controller cannot be changed without uninstalling and reinstalling App Controller

On the Configure the database page, specify the following.

Only one App Controller database can be installed per SQL Server instance

Choose whether or not to join the CEIP and also to use Microsoft Update for receiving updates within App Controller

 Confirm your selections are correct in the below screen and click on the 'Install' button

Once setup completes successfully, ensure you have selected the 'Start the App Controller window when Setup closes' box and then click on the 'Finish' button to close the window

Enter your credentials to sign into System Center App Controller 2012

You should now see the screen below with the new System Center App Controller 2012 installation completed and you're now ready to manage your public and private cloud environments all from one window!