vCenter Server provides a centralized platform for management, operation, resource provisioning, and performance evaluation of virtual machines and hosts.
When you deploy the vCenter Server Appliance, vCenter Server, the vCenter Server components, and the authentication services are deployed on the same system.
The following components are included in the vCenter Server appliance deployments :
* The authentication services contain vCenter Single Sign-On, License service, Lookup Service, and VMware Certificate Authority.
* The vCenter Server group of services contains vCenter Server, vSphere Client, vSphere Auto Deploy, and vSphere ESXi Dump Collector. The vCenter Server appliance also contains the VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Extension service and the VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager.
