Problem 1:
There are 2 main problems which comes during the installation of vcenter5.5 on windows server 2012R2: the first is that when installing the vCenter Server component, it would not recognize any administrator user (or group) you’re your domain that you try to add as an administrator.
Resolution:
This issue can be resolved by logging into the Web Client with the SSO administrator user and adding your AD info as default under SSO configuration.
Problem 2:
The second problem that you will face is: the installer would hang at the following screen:
On checking the vminst.log file in %temp% you will find the following:
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 Begin Logging
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 --- CA exec: VMAdamInstall
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 Getting Property CustomActionData = 603;603;C:\Users\mike\AppData\Local\Temp\{E1F05550-4238-4378-87F0-105147A251D9};C:\Windows\SysWOW64\;C:\Windows\system32\;C:\Windows\ADAM\
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 setupApp = [C:\Windows\system32\ocsetup.exe]
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 --- function: SetupComponentOnWindows
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 [C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c start /w C:\Windows\system32\ocsetup.exe DirectoryServices-ADAM /passive /norestart]
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 Util_Launch::Wait: 1 Hide: 1 TimeOut: -1
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 Found "C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe"
VMware VirtualCenter-build-1312298: 09/22/13 18:33:46 Attempting to launch ["C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe" /c start /w C:\Windows\system32\ocsetup.exe DirectoryServices-ADAM /passive /norestart]
Resolution
On examining the log files it is found that ocsetup.exe is not included in Server 2012 R2 like it was in previous versions. So to resolve the issue you had to copy this ocsetup.exe file from Server2008 R2 DVD into the *system32* directory on your Server2012R2 and after re-running setup vCenter Server installed successfully.
Note: If after putting ocsetup.exe file you still facing problem in running the setup then reboot your machine and try again. This time you will be able to run the setup without any difficulty.