Managing a VM that vCenter is running on

I use ESXi Essentials v5.5, and have 3 hosts, 5 VMs - a small setup.  I don't have vCenter installed yet, but want to do this to get familiar with the Web Client.  If I install vCenter on a VM, is it possible to shutdown that VM and manage the machine, upgrade virtual hardware, etc?  I am not clear if I would be able to do this if vCenter isn't running.  I am under the impression that vCenter (and/or SSO) needs to validate the credentials of the Web Client.