There are a number of deployment options available for deploying vCenter. The vCenter Server can be deployed on a dedicated physical server running a 64-bit Windows server operating system, on a virtual machine running a 64-bit Windows server guest operating system, or on a Linux-based virtual appliance. All vCenter components can be installed on a single server, or the components can be installed on separate virtual or physical machines.
Regardless of the deployment option selected, the vCenter Server components must be installed and configured in a specific order so that the service dependencies are met.
The order of installation of the vCenter Server components is as follows:
vCenter SSO
VMware vCenter Inventory Service
VMware vCenter Server
VMware vSphere Web Client
Other vCenter tools and plugins (VUM, third-party plugins, and so on)
The following diagram illustrates the order of installation of the vCenter Server components: