vSphere Upgrade Update 1 Modified on 4 OCT 2017 VMware vSphere 6.5 VMware ESXi 6.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2009–2017 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc.
Contents About vSphere Upgrade 6 1 Introduction to vSphere Upgrade 7 Overview of the vSphere Upgrade Process 8 vSphere 6.5 Component Behavior Changes that Affect Upgrade 15 Deployment Topologies with External Platform Services Controller Instances and High Availability 32 Moving from a Deprecated to a Supported vCenter Server Deployment Topology Before Upgrade or Migration 34 Example Upgrade Paths for vCenter Server version 5.5 to version 6.
vSphere Upgrade Preparing for Migration 168 Prerequisites for Migrating vCenter Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, and Platform Services Controller 182 Required Information for Migrating vCenter Server from Windows to an Appliance 184 GUI Migration of vCenter Server with an Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller to an Appliance 187 GUI Migration of vCenter Server with an External vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller to an Appliance 193 CLI Migration of a vC
vSphere Upgrade 11 Troubleshooting a vSphere Upgrade 327 Collecting Logs for Troubleshooting a vCenter Server Installation or Upgrade 328 Errors and Warnings Returned by the Installation and Upgrade Precheck Script Restore vCenter Server 5.5 Services If Upgrade Fails 330 332 Roll Back a vCenter Server Instance on Windows When vCenter Server Upgrade Fails 333 VMware Component Manager Error During Startup After vCenter Server Appliance 5.
About vSphere Upgrade vSphere Upgrade describes how to upgrade VMware vSphere™ to the current version. To move to the current version of vSphere by performing a fresh installation that does not preserve existing configurations, see the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation. Intended Audience vSphere Upgrade is for anyone who needs to upgrade from earlier versions of vSphere.
Introduction to vSphere Upgrade 1 vSphere 6.5 provides many options for upgrading your vSphere deployment. For a successful vSphere upgrade, you must understand the upgrade options, the configuration details that impact the upgrade process, and the sequence of tasks. The two core components of vSphere are VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server™. ESXi is the virtualization platform on which you can create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances.
vSphere Upgrade Overview of the vSphere Upgrade Process vSphere is a sophisticated product with multiple components to upgrade. Understanding the required sequence of tasks is vital for a successful vSphere upgrade. Figure 1‑1. Overview of High-Level vSphere Upgrade Tasks Start vSphere upgrade Back up your configuration Upgrade vCenter Server Upgrade ESXi hosts Upgrade virtual machines and virtual appliances Upgrade to vSphere 6.
vSphere Upgrade 8 Upgrade your VMs and virtual appliances, manually or by using vSphere Update Manager, to perform an orchestrated upgrade. See Upgrading Virtual Machines and VMware Tools. When you upgrade vSphere, you must perform all procedures in sequence to avoid possible data loss and to minimize downtime. You can perform the upgrade process for each component in only one direction. For example, after you upgrade to vCenter Server 6.5, you cannot revert to vCenter Server version 5.5 or version 6.0.
vSphere Upgrade High-level steps for upgrading or migrating vCenter Server: 1 Select your upgrade goal. n Chapter 2 Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance n Chapter 3 Upgrading vCenter Server for Windows n Chapter 4 Migrating vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance 2 Verify that your system meets the hardware and software requirements. 3 Prepare your environment for the upgrade or migration.
vSphere Upgrade Migration Assistant Interface for Migrating vCenter Server on Windows to vCenter Server Appliance When you migrate a legacy vCenter Single Sign-On, Platform Services Controller, or vCenter Server on Windows to an appliance using the Migration Assistant interface. You can use either the GUI method or the CLI method to migrate the legacy Windows installation data to a target appliance. See Overview of Migration from vCenter Server on Windows to an Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑3. Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process Start ESXi upgrade Verify requirements are met Choose your upgrade method Prepare for ESXi host upgrade Prepare for ESXI host upgrade with Auto Deploy Prepare for ESXi host upgrade with vSphere Update Manager Upgrade ESXi hosts using the GUI, script, or CLI Upgrade ESXi hosts using Auto Deploy Upgrade ESXi hosts using vSphere Update Manager Perform post-upgrade tasks Upgrade to ESXi 6.
vSphere Upgrade Methods supported for direct upgrade to ESXi 6.5 are: n Use the interactive graphical user interface (GUI) installer from CD, DVD, or USB drive. n Scripted upgrade. n Use the esxcli command line interface (CLI). n vSphere Auto Deploy. If the ESXi 5.5.x host was deployed by using vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host with a 6.5 image. n vSphere Update Manager.
vSphere Upgrade vSphere Auto Deploy After an ESXi 5.5.x or ESXi host is deployed with vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host and reboot it with a new image profile. This profile contains an ESXi upgrade or patch, a host configuration profile, and optionally, third-party drivers or management agents that are provided by VMware partners. You can build custom images by using vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI. See Chapter 9 Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts.
vSphere Upgrade Table 1‑1. Upgrading vCenter Server and Related VMware Products and Components Product or Component Compatibility vCenter Server Verify support for the upgrade path from your current version of vCenter Server to your planned upgrade version. See the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php. vCenter Server database Verify that your database is supported for the vCenter Server version that you are upgrading to.
vSphere Upgrade vCenter Server Upgrade Methods vSphere supports multiple methods for upgrading vCenter Server to version 6.5. Supported Migration Path from vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance You can migrate from an existing vCenter Server for Windows configuration to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 deployment using a graphical user interface-based installer or a command line interface-based installer. See Differences between Upgrading and Migrating vCenter Server on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade vCenter Server instance. vCenter Server components can no longer be deployed individually. For more details on service migration during upgrade, see Distributed vCenter Server 5.5 for Windows Services Relocation During Upgrade or Migration Upgrade Order and Mixed Version Environment Behavior You cannot upgrade multiple vCenter Server instances or Platform Services Controller instances concurrently, and upgrade order matters.
vSphere Upgrade Enhanced Linked Mode Topology Changes from vCenter Server 5.5 The implementation of Linked Mode has changed starting with vSphere 6.0. You no longer need to join vCenter Server instances to Linked Mode groups. You can access the replication functionality provided by Linked Mode in vSphere 5.5 by registering multiple vCenter Server instances to the same Platform Services Controller or joining Platform Services Controller instances in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
vSphere Upgrade Changes Affecting VMware Services Changes affecting VMware services may affect your upgrade planning. Embedded PostgreSQL Database Replaces Embedded Microsoft SQL Server Express Database for vCenter Server 6.0 The vCenter Server 6.0 embedded Microsoft SQL Server Express database is replaced with an embedded PostgreSQL database during the upgrade to vCenter Server 6.5. The maximum inventory size that applied for Microsoft SQL Server Express still applies for PostgreSQL.
vSphere Upgrade n For a mixed-platform installation with vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 appliances or Platform Services Controller 6.0 appliances and vCenter Server instances on Windows, upgrade all the vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 appliances or Platform Services Controller 6.0 appliances before upgrading or migrating any vCenter Server instances on Windows. n After upgrading or migrating your vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 instances or Platform Services Controller 6.
vSphere Upgrade n vSphere Web Client 5.5 shows vCenter Server instances only, not 6.5 instances. When you upgrade the external vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 instance to an external Platform Services Controller 6.5 instance, and all vCenter Server 5.5 instances to version 6.5, none of the vCenter Server instances are affected. They continue operating with the Platform Services Controller as they did before the upgrade, without any problems or required action.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑6. Example vSphere 6.0 Deployment Before Transition Begins Transitional Upgrade Environment: Starting Configuration Platform Services Controller 6.0 Platform Services Controller 6.0 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑8. Example vSphere 6.0 Deployment in Transition at Step 1 Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 1 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Platform Services Controller 6.0 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑10. Example vSphere 6.0 Deployment in Transition at Step 2 Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 2 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑12. Example vSphere 6.0 Deployment in Transition at Step 3 Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 3 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.0 Operating System Operating System Operating System After upgrading the first vCenter Server instance to 6.5, changes occur in the connectivity between the vCenter Server instances.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑14. Example vSphere 5.5 Deployment in Transition at Step 4 Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 4 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server 6.0 Operating System Operating System Operating System After upgrading the second vCenter Server instance to 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑15. Example vSphere 5.5 Deployment After Step 5 with Upgrade Complete Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 5 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Platform Services Controller 6.5 Operating System Operating System vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server 6.5 Operating System Operating System Operating System Figure 1‑16. Example vSphere 6.0 Deployment After Step 5 with Upgrade Complete Transitional Upgrade Environment: Step 5 Platform Services Controller 6.
vSphere Upgrade Distributed vCenter Server 5.5 for Windows Services Relocation During Upgrade or Migration Custom installations of vCenter Server 5.5 for Windows that have services located across multiple machines are upgraded and relocated (if required) to the vCenter Server system during the upgrade or migration process. If all vCenter Server 5.5 services are deployed in the same system, they are upgraded in place without any need for configuration after upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade Table 1‑3. vCenter Server 5.5 Distributed Service Relocation During Upgrade (Continued) Service Name vSphere Auto Deploy Service Location Before Upgrade Service Location After Upgrade Not installed on the vCenter Server system Relocated as part of the vCenter Server system Post-Upgrade Actions vSphere Auto Deploy data is copied to the Auto Deploy 6.5 instance that is installed with vCenter Server 6.5. Repoint vCenter Server DHCP settings to the migrated vSphere Auto Deploy service.
vSphere Upgrade Differences between Upgrading and Migrating vCenter Server on Windows You have two choices for moving your vCenter Server deployment on Windows to version 6.5: you can use the upgrade on Windows process or you can use the migration process to convert your deployment to an appliance at the same time that you upgrade the deployment to version 6.5. It is important to understand the differences and similarities between upgrading and migrating vCenter Server instances on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade Upgrading or Migrating to vSphere License Service The License Service is in the Platform Services Controller. The License Service provides common license inventory and management capabilities to the vCenter Server systems that are registered to a Platform Services Controller or multiple Platform Services Controllers that are joined in one vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
vSphere Upgrade For information about migrating a vCenter Server installation to an appliance, see Chapter 4 Migrating vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance. Deployment Topologies with External Platform Services Controller Instances and High Availability To ensure Platform Services Controller high availability in external deployments, you must install or deploy at least two joined Platform Services Controller instances in your vCenter Single Sign-On domain.
vSphere Upgrade Platform Services Controller with Load Balancers Across vCenter Single Sign-On Sites Figure 1‑18.
vSphere Upgrade When you join two or more Platform Services Controller instances in the same site with no load balancer, you configure Platform Services Controller high availability with a manual failover for this site. Note If your vCenter Single Sign-On domain includes three or more Platform Services Controller instances, you can manually create a ring topology. A ring topology ensures Platform Services Controller reliability when one of the instances fails.
vSphere Upgrade The installer does not validate whether the Platform Services Controller is external or embedded with vCenter Server. Although many types of join operations are possible, not all resulting topologies are supported. Before you upgrade or migrate your environment to vSphere 6.5, you must move any deprecated deployment topology to a supported deployment topology.
vSphere Upgrade Moving to a Supported Topology from an Embedded Platform Services Controller and an External Platform Services Controller in Replication Figure 1‑23.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑24. vCenter Server 5.5 with Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Inventory Service vSphere Web Client vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Single Sign-On Operating System Platform Services Controller Operating System If you have a custom vCenter Server 5.5 environment with an externally deployed vCenter Single Sign-On, the vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑26. vCenter Server 5.5 with Remote vSphere Auto Deploy Server Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑27. vCenter Server 5.5 with Remote vSphere Web Client and vCenter Signle SignOn Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑28. vCenter Server 5.5 with All Remote Components Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 1‑29. vCenter Server 6.0.x with Embedded Platform Services Controller Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter Server vCenter Server Platform Services Controller Platform Services Controller Operating System Operating System The installer upgrades an external vCenter Server 6.0.x instance to an external vCenter Server 6.5 instance and an external Platform Services Controller 6.0.x instance to an external Platform Services Controller 6.5 instance.
vSphere Upgrade Example Migration Paths from vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 You can migrate a vCenter Server for Windows instance to a vCenter Server Appliance instance. You can migrate a vCenter Server version 5.5 or version 6.0 instance on Windows to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 deployment on a Linux-based OS. The vCenter Server example migration paths demonstrate supported migration outcomes.
vSphere Upgrade You can migrate a vCenter Server instance with an external vCenter Single Sign-On (version 5.5) or Platform Services Controller (version 6.0) to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 instance with an external Platform Services Controller appliance. In this case you must first migrate the external vCenter Single Sign-On instance or Platform Services Controller instance and then the vCenter Server instance. Figure 1‑33. vCenter Server 5.5.
vSphere Upgrade If you have a multi-site setup configured with replication, you can use vCenter Server to incorporate your common services into an external Platform Services Controller configuration as part of your upgrade process. For more information on mixed version transitional environments, see Upgrade or Migration Order and Mixed-Version Transitional Behavior for Multiple vCenter Server Instance Deployments. VMware, Inc.
Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance 2 You can upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 or 6.0 and the Platform Services Controller appliance 6.0 to version 6.5. All of the installation files that are necessary for the upgrade are included in the vCenter Server Appliance installer, which you can download from the VMware Web site.
vSphere Upgrade The vCenter Server Appliance installer contains executable files GUI and CLI upgrades which you can use alternatively. n The GUI upgrade is a two stage process. The first stage is a deployment wizard that deploys the OVA file of the new appliance on the target ESXi host or vCenter Server instance.
vSphere Upgrade About the Upgrade Process of the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance You can upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance from version 5.5 or 6.0 to version 6.5. You can upgrade the Platform Services Controller appliance from version 6.0 to version 6.5. When you run the GUI or CLI upgrade, the process includes: 1 Deploying a new appliance of version 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 2‑1.
vSphere Upgrade System Requirements for the New vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance The upgrade of the appliance is a migration of the old version to the new version, which includes deploying a new appliance of version 6.5. You can deploy the new vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance on an ESXi host 5.5 or later, or on a vCenter Server instance 5.5 or later. Your system must also meet specific software and hardware requirements.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑1.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑2.
vSphere Upgrade VMware uses designated ports for communication. Additionally, the managed hosts monitor designated ports for data from vCenter Server. If a built-in firewall exists between any of these elements, the installer opens the ports during the installation or upgrade process. For custom firewalls, you must manually open the required ports.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑3. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Used for Node-to-Node Communication Port Protocol Description Required for 88 TCP Active Directory server. This port must be open for host to join Active Directory. If you use native Active Directory, the port must be open on both vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑3. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Used for Node-to-Node Communication Port Protocol Description Required for 514 TCP/UDP vSphere Syslog Collector port for vCenter Server on Windows and vSphere Syslog Service port for vCenter Server Appliance Windows installations and appliance deployments of n vCenter Server Important You can change this port number during the vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller installations on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑3. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 2012 TCP Control interface RPC for vCenter Single Sign-On Windows installations and appliance deployments of Platform Services Controller 2014 TCP RPC port for all VMCA (VMware Certificate Authority) APIs Important You can change this port number during the Platform Services Controller installations on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑3.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑3. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 9123 TCP Migration Assistant port Windows installations and appliance deployments of Only when you run the Migration Assistant on the source Windows installation. The Migration Assistant lets you migrate Windows installations of vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller to appliances.
vSphere Upgrade DNS Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance When you deploy the new vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance, in the temporary network settings, you can assign a static IP address and an FQDN that is resolvable by a DNS server. After the upgrade, the appliance frees this static IP address and assumes the network settings of the old appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑4. Supported Guest Operating Systems and Minimum Browser Versions for the vSphere Web Client Operating system Windows Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer v. 10.0.19 and later. Mozilla Firefox v. 39 and later. Google Chrome v. 34 and later. Mac OS Mozilla Firefox v. 39 and later. Google Chrome v. 34 and later.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑5. System Requirements for the GUI and CLI Installers Operating System Supported Versions Windows n Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 n Windows 2012 x64 bit n Windows 2012 R2 x64 bit n Windows 2016 x64 bit n SUSE 12 n Ubuntu 14.04 n macOS v10.9, 10,10, 10.11 n macOS Sierra Linux Mac Minimum Hardware Configuration for Optimal Performance 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU having 4 cores with 2.3 GHz, 32 GB hard disk, 1 NIC 4 GB RAM, 1 CPU having 2 cores with 2.
vSphere Upgrade 3 Mount or extract the ISO image to the client machine from which you want to deploy, upgrade, migrate, or restore the appliance. Note ISO mounting or extracting software that does not allow more than eight directory levels, for example, MagicISO Maker on Windows, is unsupported. For Linux OS and Mac OS, Archive Manager is unsupported. For Mac OS, you can use DiskImageMounter. For Ubuntu 14.04, you can use Disk Image Mounter. For SUSE 12 OS, you can use the terminal.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 To keep your current SSL certificates, back up the SSL certificates that are on the vCenter Server Appliance system before you upgrade to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5. The default location of the SSL certificates is %allusersprofile%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter. 2 If you have Custom or Thumbprint certificates, see Host Upgrades and Certificates to determine your preparatory steps. 3 Run vCenter Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker.
vSphere Upgrade The recommended upgrade workflow depends on the current certificates. Host Provisioned with Thumbprint Certificates If your host is currently using thumbprint certificates, it is automatically assigned VMCA certificates as part of the upgrade process. Note You cannot provision legacy hosts with VMCA certificates. You must upgrade those hosts to ESXi 6.0 later.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Change the value of vpxd.certmgmt.mode to custom if you intend to manage your own certificates, and to thumbprint if you temporarily want to use thumbprint mode, and click OK. 5 Restart the vCenter Server service. Determine the Oracle Database Size and the Storage Size for the New Appliance Before upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance or migrating a vCenter Server on Windows that uses an external Oracle database, you must determine the size of the existing database.
vSphere Upgrade AND AND AND AND AND AND ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE 'VPX_TOPN%' 'VPX_SDRS_STATS_VM%' 'VPX_SDRS_STATS_DATASTORE%' 'VPX_TASK%' 'VPX_EVENT%' 'VPX_PROPERTY_BULLETIN%'); The script returns the database storage size in MB. 3 Determine the events and tasks table size by running the following script. SELECT ROUND(SUM(s.bytes)/(1024*1024)) SIZE_MB FROM user_segments s WHERE (s.segment_name,s.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Calculate the minimum storage size for the new appliance that you are going to deploy during the upgrade. a The size of the database (/storage/db) partition of the embedded PostgreSQL database must be at least twice the size of the Oracle core table returned in Step 2.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites for Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller Appliance To ensure successful upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance, you must preform some required tasks and pre-checks before running the upgrade. General Prerequisites n Download and Mount the vCenter Server Appliance Installer. n Verify that the clocks of all machines on the vSphere network are synchronized.
vSphere Upgrade n Verify that port 443 is open on the source ESXi host on which the appliance that you want to upgrade resides. The upgrade process establishes an HTTPS connection to the source ESXi host to verify that the source appliance is ready for upgrade and to set up an SSH connection between the new and the existing appliance. n If you are upgrading version 5.5 of the vCenter Server Appliance and you have changed its host name, verify that the SSL certificate is configured correctly.
vSphere Upgrade GUI Upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance You can use the GUI installer to perform an interactive upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance. When you perform the GUI upgrade, you download the vCenter Server Appliance installer on a network client machine, run the upgrade wizard from the client machine, and provide the inputs that are required for the deployment and setup of the new upgraded appliance.
vSphere Upgrade The second stage walks you through the setup wizard to choose the data types to transfer from the old to the new appliance. The new appliance uses the temporary network settings until the data transfer finishes. After the data transfer finishes, the new appliance assumes the network settings of the old appliance. This stage completes the data transfer, starts the services of the new upgraded appliance, and powers off the old appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑6. Required Information During Stage 1 of the Upgrade (Continued) Required for Upgrade of All deployment types Required Information Default User name with administrative privileges on the source server - n If your source server is an ESXi host, use root. n If your source server is a vCenter Server instance, use user_name@your_domain_name, for example, administrator@vsphere.local.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑6. Required Information During Stage 1 of the Upgrade (Continued) Required for Upgrade of Required Information Default All deployment types Password for the root user of the appliance operating system - n Must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑6. Required Information During Stage 1 of the Upgrade (Continued) Required for Upgrade of n vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On n vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an external vCenter Single Sign-On n vCenter Server Appliance 6.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑6. Required Information During Stage 1 of the Upgrade (Continued) Required for Upgrade of Required Information Default All deployment types Name of the datastore on which you want to store the configuration files and virtual disks of the new appliance - Your Entry Note The installer displays a list of datastores that are accessible from your target server.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑7. Required Information During Stage 2 of the Upgrade Required for Required Information Default vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On vCenter Single Sign-On site name - n vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded or external vCenter Single Sign-On Data types to transfer from the old appliance to the new appliance - n vCenter Server Appliance 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 2‑4.
vSphere Upgrade Stage 1 - Deploy the OVA File of the New vCenter Server Appliance With an Embedded Platform Services Controller With stage 1 of the upgrade process, you deploy the OVA file, which is included in the vCenter Server Appliance installer, for the new vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Connect to the source appliance that you want to upgrade. a b Enter the information about the source vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade, and click Connect to Source. Option Action Appliance FQDN or IP address Enter the IP address or FQDN of the vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade. Appliance HTTPS port The default value (443) is displayed and cannot be edited. Enter the information about the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator and root user.
vSphere Upgrade 8 Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the new vCenter Server Appliance. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the new appliance. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. 2 Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host. 3 Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user. 4 Click Next. 5 Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.
vSphere Upgrade Deployment Size Option Description Large Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs and 32 GB of memory. Suitable for environments with up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines X-Large Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs and 48 GB of memory. Suitable for environments with up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines 11 Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next.
vSphere Upgrade Option Network type Action Select the allocation method for the temporary IP address of the appliance. n Static The wizard prompts you to enter the temporary IP address, subnet mask or prefix length, default gateway, and DNS servers. n DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the temporary IP address. Select this option only if a DHCP server is available in your environment. Optionally, you can provide a temporary system name (FQDN) if a DDNS server is available in your environment.
vSphere Upgrade You cannot proceed with the upgrade until you have corrected the errors. Important If you have provided incorrect vCenter Single Sign-On user name and password of the source appliance during stage 1, the pre-upgrade check fails with an authentication error. n If the pre-upgrade check result contains warning messages, read the messages and click Close. After you have verified that your system meets the requirements from the warning message, you can proceed with the upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade n You can configure high availability for the vCenter Server Appliance. For information about providing vCenter Server Appliance high availability, see vSphere Availability. Upgrade a Platform Services Controller Appliance 6.0 by Using the GUI You can use the GUI installer to perform an interactive upgrade of a Platform Services Controller appliance 6.0 to version 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade 2 Stage 2 - Transfer the Data and Set up the Newly Deployed Platform Services Controller Appliance When the OVA deployment finishes, you are redirected to stage 2 of the upgrade process to transfer the data from the old appliance and start the services of the newly deployed Platform Services Controller appliance 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Connect to the source appliance that you want to upgrade. a Enter the information about the source Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade, and click Connect to Source. Option Action Appliance server or host name Enter the IP address or FQDN of the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade. Appliance HTTPS Port The default value (443) is displayed and cannot be edited. b Enter the Appliance (OS) Root password.
vSphere Upgrade 7 Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the new Platform Services Controller appliance. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the new appliance. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. 2 Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host. 3 Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user.
vSphere Upgrade 10 Configure the temporary network for communication between the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade and the new Platform Services Controller appliance, and click Next. Option Action Choose a network Select the network to which to connect the new appliance temporarily. The networks displayed in the drop-down menu depend on the network settings of the target server.
vSphere Upgrade Stage 2 - Transfer the Data and Set up the Newly Deployed Platform Services Controller Appliance When the OVA deployment finishes, you are redirected to stage 2 of the upgrade process to transfer the data from the old appliance and start the services of the newly deployed Platform Services Controller appliance 6.5. Procedure 1 Review the introduction to stage 2 of the upgrade process and click Next. 2 Wait for the pre-upgrade check to finish and read the pre-upgrade check result if any.
vSphere Upgrade n If the Platform Services Controller appliance replicates the infrastructure data with other Platform Services Controller instances, you must upgrade all Platform Services Controller instances in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain to the same version. Upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 or 6.0 with an External vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller Instance by Using the GUI You can use the GUI installer to perform an interactive upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance 5.
vSphere Upgrade Stage 1 - Deploy the OVA File of the New vCenter Server Appliance With an External Platform Services Controller With stage 1 of the upgrade process, you deploy the OVA file of the new vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 with an external Platform Services Controller. Procedure 1 In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Connect to the source appliance that you want to upgrade. a b Enter the information about the source vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade, and click Connect to Source. Option Action Appliance FQDN or IP address Enter the IP address or FQDN of the vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade. Appliance HTTPS port The default value (443) is displayed and cannot be edited. Enter the information about the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator and root user.
vSphere Upgrade 8 Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the new vCenter Server Appliance. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the new appliance. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. 2 Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host. 3 Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user. 4 Click Next. 5 Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.
vSphere Upgrade Deployment Size Option Description Large Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs and 32 GB of memory. Suitable for environments with up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines X-Large Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs and 48 GB of memory. Suitable for environments with up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines 11 Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next.
vSphere Upgrade Option Network type Action Select the allocation method for the temporary IP address of the appliance. n Static The wizard prompts you to enter the temporary IP address, subnet mask or prefix length, default gateway, and DNS servers. n DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the temporary IP address. Select this option only if a DHCP server is available in your environment. Optionally, you can provide a temporary system name (FQDN) if a DDNS server is available in your environment.
vSphere Upgrade You cannot proceed with the upgrade until you have corrected the errors. Important If you have provided incorrect vCenter Single Sign-On user name and password of the source appliance during stage 1, the pre-upgrade check fails with an authentication error. n If the pre-upgrade check result contains warning messages, read the messages and click Close. After you have verified that your system meets the requirements from the warning message, you can proceed with the upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade CLI Upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance You can use the CLI installer to perform an unattended upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance on an ESXi host or vCenter Server instance.
vSphere Upgrade n Download and Mount the vCenter Server Appliance Installer. Procedure 1 In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-cli-installer directory, and open the templates subfolder. 2 Copy the upgrade templates from the upgrade subfolder to your workspace. Important The path to the JSON configuration files must contain only ASCII characters. Extended ASCII and non-ASCII characters are unsupported. 3 Open the template file for your use case in a text editor.
vSphere Upgrade JSON Templates for CLI Upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance The vCenter Server Appliance installer contains JSON templates that are located in the vcsa-cliinstaller/templates directory. In the upgrade subfolder, you can find the JSON templates with the minimum configuration parameters for all upgrade types.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑8. Upgrade JSON Templates Included in the vCenter Server Appliance Installer (Continued) Location Template Description embedded_vCSA_on_VC.json Contains the minimum configuration parameters that are required for upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 with an embedded Platform Services Controller on a vCenter Server instance. PSC_on_ESXi.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑9. Sections and Subsections of Configuration Parameters in the JSON Upgrade Files Section Subsecti on Description new.vcsa - describes the esxi Use only if you want to deploy the new appliance directly on an ESXi host. new appliance that you want to deploy Contains the configuration parameters that describe the target ESXi host. See Table 2‑10. Note You must fill in either this subsection or the vc subsection.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑9. Sections and Subsections of Configuration Parameters in the JSON Upgrade Files (Continued) Section source.vum - describes the source VMware Update Manager instance Subsecti on run.migr ation.as sistant Use if you want to automatically run the Migration Assistant on the VMware Update Manager instance.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑10. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, esxi Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description deployment.network string The name of the network to which to connect the new appliance. The network must part of the target ESXi host network configuration. Note The network must be accessible from the source ESXi host on which resides the appliance that you want to upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑11. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, vc Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description datastore string The name of the datastore that you want to store all virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks of the new appliance. Note The datastore must be available to the target ESXi host or DRS cluster. The datastore must have at least 25 GB of free space. port integer The HTTPS reverse proxy port of the target vCenter Server instance.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑12. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection Name Type Description thin.disk.mode Boolean Set to true to deploy the new appliance with thin virtual disks. deployment.option string The size for the new appliance. Note You must consider the database size of the appliance that you want to upgrade. For an external database, see Determine the Oracle Database Size and the Storage Size for the New Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑12. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description n Set to large if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller for up to 1,000 hosts and 10,000 virtual machines with the default storage size. Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs, 32 GB of memory, and 640 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑12. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description n Set to management-small-lstorage if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller for up to 100 hosts and 1,000 virtual machines with the large storage size. Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs, 16 GB of memory, and 820 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑12. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description n Set to management-xlarge-xlstorage if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller for up to 2,000 hosts and 35,000 virtual machines with the x-large storage size. Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs, 48 GB of memory, and 1910 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑15. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, temporary.network Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description dns.servers string or array IP addresses of one or more DNS servers for the temporary network of the new appliance. To set more than one DNS server, use a comma-separated list of strings or a commaseparated list as a single string to provide the path. For example, ["x.y.z.a", "x.y.z.b"] or "x.y.z.a, x.y.z.
vSphere Upgrade Configuration Parameters in the source.vc Section Table 2‑17. Configuration Parameters in the source.vc Section, esxi Subsection Name Type Description hostname string The IP address or FQDN of the source ESXi host on which resides the appliance that you want to upgrade. username string A user name with administrative privileges on the source ESXi host, for example, root. password string The password of the user with administrative privileges on the source ESXi host.
vSphere Upgrade Table 2‑19. Configuration Parameters in the source.vum Section, run.migration.assistant Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description vum.os.password string The administrator password of the Windows virtual machine on which the source VMware Update Manager instance runs. If not provided, you are prompted to enter the password at the command console during the template verification. export.dir string Directory to export source configuration and data.
vSphere Upgrade 2 (Optional) Run a basic template verification to verify that you prepared the upgrade template correctly. vcsa-deploy upgrade --verify-template-only path_to_the_json_file 3 (Optional) Run a pre-upgrade check to gather and validate the upgrade requirements. vcsa-deploy upgrade --precheck-only path_to_the_json_file The pre-upgrade check installs the Upgrade Runner on the source appliance that you want to upgrade without upgrading the appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Argument Description -t, --terse Hides the console output. Displays only warning and error messages. --log-dir LOG_DIR Sets the location of the log and other output files. --skip-ovftool-verification Performs basic verification of the configuration parameters in the JSON file and deploys the appliance. Does not perform verification of the OVF Tool parameters. --no-esx-ssl-verify Skips the SSL verification for ESXi connections.
Upgrading vCenter Server for Windows 3 You can upgrade vCenter Server version 5.5 and version 6.0 deployments for Windows to vCenter Server version 6.5 deployments for Windows. The vCenter Server upgrade includes a database schema upgrade, upgrade of vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller, and upgrade of the vCenter Server software.
vSphere Upgrade For upgrade steps for a vCenter Server 5.5 deployment, see Upgrading vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows. For upgrade steps for a vCenter Server 5.5 deployment, see Upgrading vCenter Server 6.0 on Windows. Important You cannot change your deployment type during upgrade. You cannot uninstall or reinstall individual services during the upgrade process. For example, vSphere Auto Deploy can no longer be deployed separately as it was in vCenter Server 5.5.
vSphere Upgrade n Verify that the connection between the virtual machine or physical server and the domain controller is working.
vSphere Upgrade You can install vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller on the same virtual machine or physical server or on different virtual machines or physical servers. When you install vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller, you install vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller on the same virtual machine or physical server.
vSphere Upgrade During installation, you can select a folder other than the default C:\Program Files\VMware folder to install vCenter Server and the Platform Services Controller. You can also select a folder other than the default C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\ in which to store data. The following table lists the absolute minimum disk space requirements for the different deployment models. The requirements change depending on the installed vCenter Server services and the vSphere inventory size.
vSphere Upgrade Required Ports for vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller The vCenter Server system, both on Windows and in the appliance, must be able to send data to every managed host and receive data from the vSphere Web Client and the Platform Services Controller services. To enable migration and provisioning activities between managed hosts, the source and destination hosts must be able to receive data from each other.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 80 TCP vCenter Server requires port 80 for direct HTTP connections. Port 80 redirects requests to HTTPS port 443. This redirection is useful if you accidentally use http://server instead of https://server. Windows installations and appliance deployments of WS-Management (also requires port 443 to be open).
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 443 TCP The default port that the vCenter Server system uses to listen for connections from the vSphere Web Client. To enable the vCenter Server system to receive data from the vSphere Web Client, open port 443 in the firewall.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Used for Node-to-Node Communication Port Protocol Description Required for 902 TCP/UDP The default port that the vCenter Server system uses to send data to managed hosts. Managed hosts also send a regular heartbeat over UDP port 902 to the vCenter Server system. This port must not be blocked by firewalls between the server and the hosts or between hosts.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 2020 TCP/UDP Authentication framework management Windows installations and appliance deployments of Important You can change this port number during the vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller installations on Windows. 5480 TCP Appliance Management Interface Open endpoint serving all HTTPS, XMLRPS and JSON-RPC requests over HTTPS.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Port Protocol Description Required for 7444 TCP Secure Token Service Windows installations and appliance deployments of Platform Services Controller For backward compatibility with vSphere 5.5 only. 8084 TCP vSphere Update Manager SOAP port The port used by vSphere Update Manager client plug-in to connect to the vSphere Update Manager SOAP server.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑4. Ports Required for Communication Between Components (Continued) Used for Node-to-Node Communication Port Protocol Description Required for 11711 TCP vCenter Single Sign-On LDAP Windows installations and appliance deployments of Platform Services Controller During upgrade from vSphere 5.5 only. Windows installations and appliance deployments of Platform Services Controller During upgrade from vSphere 5.5 only. For backward compatibility with vSphere 5.5 only.
vSphere Upgrade If you use DHCP instead of a static IP address for vCenter Server, make sure that the vCenter Server computer name is updated in the domain name service (DNS). If you can ping the computer name, the name is updated in DNS. Ensure that the ESXi host management interface has a valid DNS resolution from the vCenter Server and all vSphere Web Client instances. Ensure that the vCenter Server has a valid DNS resolution from all ESXi hosts and all vSphere Web Clients.
vSphere Upgrade n Verify Network Prerequisites Before Upgrading Verify that your network is set up correctly and meets connectivity prerequisites for upgrading vCenter Server. n Verify Load Balancer Before Upgrading vCenter Server If you are using a load balancer for high availability for vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller, you must verify that it is supported and configured correctly before upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade Download the vCenter Server Installer for Windows Download the .iso installer for vCenter Server for Windows and the associated vCenter Server components and support tools. Prerequisites Create a My VMware account at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/. Procedure 1 Download the vCenter Server installer from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. vCenter Server is part of VMware vCloud Suite and VMware vSphere, listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure.
vSphere Upgrade You cannot upgrade vCenter Server and point to an older external vCenter Server database. You can upgrade the vCenter Server 5.5 or 6.0 database to the latest version only by upgrading the vCenter Server instance connected to that database. Prepare an Oracle Database for Upgrading vCenter Server Ensure that your Oracle database meets requirements, that you have the necessary credentials, and that you complete any necessary cleanup or other preparation before upgrading vCenter Server.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Use the Oracle SERVICE_NAME instead of SID to verify that your Oracle database instance is available. n Log in to the database server to read from the alert log: $ORACLE_BASE/diag//rdbms/$instance_name/$INSTANCE_NAME/trace/alert_$ INSTANCE_NAME.log. n Log in to the database server to read from the Oracle Listener status output. n If you have the SQL*Plus client installed, you can use tnsping for the vCenter Database instance.
vSphere Upgrade Prepare Microsoft SQL Server Database Before Upgrading vCenter Server Ensure that your Microsoft SQL Server database meets requirements, that you have the necessary credentials, and that you complete any necessary cleanup or other preparation before upgrading vCenter Server. To remove the DBO role and migrate all objects in the DBO schema to a custom schema, see the VMware knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1036331.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Verify that permissions are set correctly. 5 Verify that passwords are current and not set to expire soon. 6 Verify that JDK 1.6 or later is installed on the vCenter Server machine. 7 Verify that the sqljdbc4.jar file is added to the CLASSPATH variable on the machine where vCenter Server is to be upgraded. If the sqljdbc4.jar file is not installed on your system, the vCenter Server installer installs it.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites To make sure you have the proper roles and permissions before upgrading vCenter Server, update the SQL Server database and users for vCenter Server. Procedure 1 Log in to a Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio session as the sysadmin or a user account with sysadmin privileges. 2 Run the following script to create roles and apply privileges.
vSphere Upgrade GRANT SELECT ON msdb.dbo.sysjobs to VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT SELECT ON msdb.dbo.sysjobs_view to VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_job TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_delete_job TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_update_job TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE go GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Make a full backup of the vCenter Server database. Your database is prepared for the vCenter Server upgrade. Database Permission Requirements for vCenter Server vCenter Server requires a database. If you decide to use an external Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server database, when you create the database, you must grant certain permissions to the database user. When upgrading a Microsoft SQL database, the permissions must be set correctly. Table 3‑6.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑6. Microsoft SQL Database Permissions for vCenter Server (Continued) Permission Description GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_category TO VC_ADMIN_ROLE GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO [vpxuser] Provides access to SQL Server DMV views and sp_lock execution. GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [vpxuser] Necessary for providing the user with the privileges to see metadata for SQL Server objects.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑7. Oracle Database Permissions for vCenter Server (Continued) Permission Description GRANT UNLIMITED TABLESPACE TO VPXADMIN Necessary for granting unlimited tablespace permissions to the vCenter Server database user. GRANT SELECT ON v_$system_event TO VPXADMIN Necessary for checking log file switches. GRANT SELECT ON v_$sysmetric_history TO VPXADMIN Necessary for checking the CPU utilization.
vSphere Upgrade Preparing for Upgrading the Content Library When upgrading from vCenter Server version 6.0 or earlier, you must prepare your environment before upgrading the Content Library to prevent pre-check errors. If you are upgrading from vCenter Server version 6.0 or 5.5, your environment must meet upgrade requirements for the Content Library: n All ESXi hosts from the source vCenter Server inventory must be supported by the destination vCenter Server 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade 2 Verify that DNS reverse lookup returns a fully qualified domain name when queried with the IP address of the vCenter Server. When you upgrade vCenter Server, the installation of the web server component that supports the vSphere Web Client fails if the installer cannot look up the fully qualified domain name of the vCenter Server from its IP address. Reverse lookup is implemented by using PTR records.
vSphere Upgrade Verify Load Balancer Before Upgrading vCenter Server If you are using a load balancer for high availability for vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller, you must verify that it is supported and configured correctly before upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5. In environments with less than four vCenter Server systems, VMware typically recommends a single Platform Services Controller instance and the associated vCenter Single Sign-On service.
vSphere Upgrade 4 If you have vSphere HA clusters, SSL certificate checking must be enabled. If certificate checking is not enabled when you upgrade, vSphere HA fails to configure on the hosts. a Select the vCenter Server instance in the inventory panel. b Under the Configure tab, click General. c Verify that the SSL settings field is set to vCenter Server requires verified host SSL certificates. Your ESXi hosts are ready for vCenter Server upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade 2 3 Make sure that your pre-upgrade configuration is correct for the post-upgrade deployment you want to achieve. n If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.5 to vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller deployment, make sure that your vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On instances are deployed on a single virtual machine or physical host. n If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.
vSphere Upgrade Verify that any Windows host machine on which vCenter Server runs is synchronized with the Network Time Server (NTP) server. See the Knowledge Base article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1318. To synchronize ESXi clocks with an NTP server, you can use the VMware Host Client. For information about editing the time configuration of an ESXi host, see vSphere Single Host Management.
vSphere Upgrade Using a User Account for Running vCenter Server You can use the Microsoft Windows built-in system account or a user account to run vCenter Server. With a user account, you can enable Windows authentication for SQL Server, and it provides more security. The user account must be an administrator on the local machine. In the installation wizard, you specify the account name as DomainName\Username. You must configure the SQL Server database to allow the domain account access to SQL Server.
vSphere Upgrade Table 3‑8. Information Required for Upgrading vCenter Server for Windows. Required Information Default Value Your Entry vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name administrator@vsphere .local You cannot change the default user name during upgrade. Important The user must be administrator@your_d omain_name.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 3‑1. vCenter Server 5.5 with Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.5 vCenter InventoryService vSphere WebClient vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter SingleSign-On Windows OS Platform ServicesController Windows OS Figure 3‑2. vCenter Server 5.5 with External vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter SingleSign-On vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Upgrade a vCenter Server 5.5 Installation with an Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On When you upgrade a vCenter Server instance with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On, you upgrade the entire deployment at the same time. Figure 3‑3. vCenter Server 5.5 with Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade n To verify that the VMware Directory Service is in a stable state and can stop, manually restart it. The VMware Directory service must stopped for the vCenter Server upgrade software to uninstall vCenter Single Sign-On during the upgrade process. n Download the vCenter Server Installer. See Download the vCenter Server Installer for Windows. Procedure 1 Download the vCenter Server for Windows ISO file. Extract the ISO file locally, or mount the ISO file as a drive.
vSphere Upgrade 9 Review the Summary page to verify that the settings are correct. Select the checkbox to verify that you have made a backup of the vCenter Server machine and the vCenter Server database and click Upgrade. The installer starts the upgrade process and displays a progress indicator. 10 Before clicking Finish, take note of the post upgrade steps. 11 Click Finish to complete the upgrade. Your vCenter Server for Windows upgrade is complete.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites n Your current vCenter Single Sign-On must have been installed on a separate virtual machine (VM) or physical server from your vCenter Server instance. n Verify your configuration meets the upgrade requirements, see vCenter Server for Windows Requirements. n Complete the preparation to upgrade tasks. See Before Upgrading vCenter Server n Verify that you have made a backup of your vCenter Server configuration and database.
vSphere Upgrade 9 Review the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page and choose if you want to join the program. For information about the CEIP, see the Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program section in vCenter Server and Host Management. 10 Verify that the Summary page settings are correct. Verify that you have made a backup of your system and click Upgrade. A progress indicator displays as the installer starts the upgrade process.
vSphere Upgrade n vCenter Server 5.5 ports that are in use by vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On are preserved. You cannot change ports during the upgrade. For information on required ports, see Required Ports for vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller. n vCenter Server services are no longer deployed separately from vCenter Server. Separately deployed 5.5 services are upgraded and migrated to the vCenter Server virtual machine or physical server during the upgrade process.
vSphere Upgrade 2 In the software installer, double-click the autorun.exe file to start the installer. 3 Select vCenter Server for Windows and click Install. The installer runs checks in the background to discover your existing vCenter Single Sign-On settings and notify you of any problems that can affect your upgrade process. The vCenter Server installer opens to the Welcome page. 4 Complete the installation wizard steps and accept the license agreement. 5 Enter your credentials.
vSphere Upgrade Upgrading vCenter Server 6.0 on Windows You upgrade a vCenter Server instance with an embedded Platform Services Controller in one step. When you upgrade a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller on Windows, you upgrade the instance in two steps. 1 First you upgrade the Platform Services Controller instance to version 6.5.For upgrade steps, see Upgrade vCenter Platform Services Controller 6.0 on Windows. 2 Next you upgrade the vCenter Server instance to version 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade Upgrade Order When upgrading multiple instances of vCenter Server, upgrade order matters: you upgrade all Platform Services Controller instances before upgrading vCenter Server instances. See Upgrade or Migration Order and Mixed-Version Transitional Behavior for Multiple vCenter Server Instance Deployments. Concurrent upgrades of Platform Services Controller instances are not supported.
vSphere Upgrade n For information on vCenter Server behavior in mixed version environments, see Upgrade or Migration Order and Mixed-Version Transitional Behavior for Multiple vCenter Server Instance Deployments. Prerequisites n Verify that your configuration meets the upgrade requirements. See vCenter Server for Windows Requirements. n Complete the preparation to upgrade tasks.
vSphere Upgrade 7 Configure install, data, and export data directories and click Next. The installer runs disk space and permission checks for the selected directories, and displays an error message if the selected directories do not meet the requirements. 8 Review the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page and choose if you want to join the program.
vSphere Upgrade In a mixed version environment, any vCenter Server 6.0 instances continue to operate with the upgraded Platform Services Controller exactly as they did with the vCenter Single Sign-On without any problems or required actions. For information on vCenter Server behavior in mixed version environments, see Upgrade or Migration Order and Mixed-Version Transitional Behavior for Multiple vCenter Server Instance Deployments.
vSphere Upgrade 7 Configure the ports and click Next. Verify that ports 80 and 443 are free and dedicated, so that vCenter Single Sign-On can use these ports. The installer checks the availability of the selected ports and displays an error message if a selected port cannot be used. 8 Configure the install, data, and export directories and click Next.
vSphere Upgrade After you migrate or upgrade all joined Platform Services Controller instances, you can migrate or upgrade the vCenter Server instances within the vCenter Single Sign-On domain. For information on upgrading vCenter Server instances on Windows, see Upgrade vCenter Server 6.0 on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade n To verify that the VMware Directory Service is in a stable state and can stop, manually restart it. The VMware Directory service must stopped for the vCenter Server upgrade software to uninstall vCenter Single Sign-On during the upgrade process. n Download the vCenter Server Installer. See Download the vCenter Server Installer for Windows. Procedure 1 Download the vCenter Server for Windows ISO file. Extract the ISO file locally, or mount the ISO file as a drive.
vSphere Upgrade Your vCenter Server upgrade is complete. For information on post-upgrade tasks, see Chapter 5 After Upgrading or Migrating vCenter Server. VMware, Inc.
Migrating vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance 4 You can migrate a vCenter Server installation on Windows to a vCenter Server Appliance installation while upgrading to version 6.5.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑1. Supported vSphere Migration Paths Source Configuration vCenter Server 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On instance on Windows vCenter Server 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller instance on Windows Target Configuration vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 with an embedded Platform Services Controller appliance vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 instance on Windows External Platform Services Controller 6.5 appliance Platform Services Controller 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 4‑1. High-level Tasks for vCenter Server on Windows Migration to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Start vCenter Server on Windows migration Verify migration requirements Prepare for migration Embedded What is your deployment type? External Run Migration Assistant on the source vCenter Single Sign-On (5.5) or Platform Services Controller (6.0). Leave it open during migration Run Migration Assistant on the source vCenter Server.
vSphere Upgrade n GUI Migration of vCenter Server with an External vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller to an Appliance n CLI Migration of a vCenter Server Installation from Windows to an Appliance Important You cannot change your deployment type during migration. Migration of Update Manager from Windows to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 For vSphere 6.0 and earlier releases, 64-bit Windows operating systems are the only supported host operating systems for Update Manager.
vSphere Upgrade System Requirements for Migrating vCenter Server Deployments to vCenter Server Appliance Deployments Your source and target systems must meet specific software and hardware requirements before you can migrate a vCenter Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, or Platform Services Controller deployment to a vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance. Source System n Your source system must meet specific software and hardware requirements for vCenter Server for Windows.
vSphere Upgrade Target System n Your target system must meet specific software and hardware requirements for vCenter Server Appliance. See System Requirements for the New vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance. n When you use Fully Qualified Domain Names, make sure that the machine you use for deploying the vCenter Server Appliance and the target ESXi host or vCenter Server instance are on the same DNS server.
vSphere Upgrade Target Environment Checks The pre-migration checker performs checks for the following aspects of the target environment: n Minimum processor requirements n Minimum memory requirements n Minimum disk space requirements n Administrator privileges on the target host n Any credentials that you enter Known Limitations The current release has several known limitations.
vSphere Upgrade n Preparing to Migrate the Content Library n Prepare Managed ESXi Hosts for Migration n Download and Mount the vCenter Server Appliance Installer n Download and Run VMware Migration Assistant on the Source Windows Machine Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network Verify that all components on the vSphere network have their clocks synchronized.
vSphere Upgrade Preparing vCenter Server Databases for Migration The vCenter Server Appliance instance requires a database to store and organize server data. Ensure your source vCenter Server database is prepared for migration to the target vCenter Server Appliance. Each vCenter Server Appliance instance must have its own database. The bundled PostgreSQL database that is included in the vCenter Server Appliance supports up to 2,000 hosts and 35,000 virtual machines.
vSphere Upgrade Prepare an Oracle Database for Migration Ensure that you have the necessary credentials, and that you complete any necessary cleanup or other preparation before migrating your Oracle database from Windows to an embedded PostgreSQL database in the appliance. Prerequisites Verify that you have confirmed basic interoperability before preparing your Oracle database for migration. Verify that you have backed up your database.
vSphere Upgrade 7 For vCenter Server 5.5, run the cleanup script. a Locate the cleanup_orphaned_data_Oracle.sql script in the ISO image and copy it to the Oracle server. b Log in to a SQL*Plus session with the vCenter Server database account. c Run the cleanup script. @path/cleanup_orphaned_data_Oracle.sql The cleanup process purges unnecessary and orphaned data that is not used by any vCenter Server component. 8 Make a full backup of the vCenter Server database.
vSphere Upgrade 5 For vCenter Server 5.5, run the cleanup script. a Locate the cleanup_orphaned_data_MSSQL.sql script in the ISO image and copy it to a location accessible by the Microsoft SQL server. b c Log in to your database. n For Microsoft SQL Server Express, open a command prompt. n For Microsoft SQL Server, log in to a Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio session as the vCenter Server database user. Run the cleanup script. For Microsoft SQL Server Express, run: sqlcmd -E -S localhost\VIM
vSphere Upgrade 4 Run the cleanup script. /opt/vmware/vpostgres/9.4/bin/psql -U postgres -d VCDB -f path cleanup_orphaned_data_Postgres.sql The cleanup script cleans and purges any unnecessary or orphaned data in your vCenter Server database that is not used by any vCenter Server component. 5 Make a full backup of the vCenter Server database. Your database is prepared for the vCenter Server migration to vCenter Server Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade 2 If you have Custom or Thumbprint certificates, see Host Upgrades and Certificates to determine your preparatory steps. 3 If you have vSphere HA clusters, SSL certificate checking must be enabled. If certificate checking is not enabled when you upgrade, vSphere HA fails to configure on the hosts. a Select the vCenter Server instance in the inventory panel. b Select the Manage tab and the General subtab.
vSphere Upgrade Get the Certificate Authority certificate, including all intermediate certificates, and create a cacert.pem file, or replace the vCenter Server certificates with any of the supported formats. n Your rui.crt contains only the leaf certificate and the cacert.pem is missing or invalid, but the cacert.pem is added to the Windows trust store. Get the Certificate Authority certificate, including all intermediate certificates from the Windows trust store and create cacert.pem.
vSphere Upgrade Determine the Oracle Database Size and the Storage Size for the New Appliance Before upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance or migrating a vCenter Server on Windows that uses an external Oracle database, you must determine the size of the existing database.
vSphere Upgrade AND AND AND AND ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname ti.tname NOT NOT NOT NOT LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE 'VPX_SDRS_STATS_DATASTORE%' 'VPX_TASK%' 'VPX_EVENT%' 'VPX_PROPERTY_BULLETIN%'); The script returns the database storage size in MB. 3 Determine the events and tasks table size by running the following script. SELECT ROUND(SUM(s.bytes)/(1024*1024)) SIZE_MB FROM user_segments s WHERE (s.segment_name,s.segment_type) IN (SELECT seg_name, seg_type FROM (SELECT t.table_name seg_name, t.
vSphere Upgrade 5 Calculate the minimum storage size for the new appliance that you are going to deploy during the upgrade. a The size of the database (/storage/db) partition of the embedded PostgreSQL database must be at least twice the size of the Oracle core table returned in Step 2.
vSphere Upgrade AND AND AND AND UPPER(o.name) UPPER(o.name) UPPER(o.name) UPPER(o.name) NOT NOT NOT NOT LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE 'VPX_EVENT%' 'VPX_SDRS_STATS_VM%' 'VPX_SDRS_STATS_DATASTORE%' 'VPX_PROPERTY_BULLETIN%'; The script returns the database storage size in MB. 3 Determine the events and tasks table size by running the following script. SELECT FROM JOIN ON WHERE AND OR SUM(p.used_page_count * 8)/1024 AS disk_size sys.dm_db_partition_stats p sys.objects o o.object_id = p.object_id o.
vSphere Upgrade Download and Run VMware Migration Assistant on the Source Windows Machine You must download and run the VMware Migration Assistant on your source vCenter Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, or Platform Services Controller to prepare it for migration from Windows to an appliance.
vSphere Upgrade 3 Run the VMware Migration Assistant on the Windows machine. n For the GUI, double-click VMware-Migration-Assistant.exe n For the CLI, enter: VMware-Migration-Assistant.exe -p To list all the available input parameters, enter: VMware-Migration-Assistant.exe --help. Important Leave the Migration Assistant window open until you complete the upgrade or the migration process of your vCenter Server deployment.
vSphere Upgrade n If you plan to deploy the new appliance on an ESXi host, verify that the target ESXi host is not in lockdown or maintenance mode. n If you plan to deploy the new appliance on an ESXi host, verify that the target ESXi host is not part of a fully automated DRS cluster. n If you plan to deploy the new appliance on a DRS cluster of the inventory of a vCenter Server instance, verify that the cluster contains at least one ESXi host that is not in lockdown or maintenance mode.
vSphere Upgrade Required Information for Migrating vCenter Server from Windows to an Appliance The vCenter Server migration wizard prompts you for the deployment and migration information when migrating a vCenter Server instance, a vCenter Single Sign-On instance, or a Platform Services Controller instance from Windows to an appliance. It is a best practice to keep a record of the values that you entered in case you must power off the appliance and restore the source installation.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑4.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑4. Information Required for Migrating vCenter Server from Windows to vCenter Server Appliance (Continued) Required Information Default Value vCenter Server Appliance size. The options vary depending on the size of your vSphere environment.
vSphere Upgrade GUI Migration of vCenter Server with an Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller to an Appliance You can use the GUI method to migrate a vCenter Server instance with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller to a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller appliance. When you migrate from vCenter Server with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On (version 5.5) or Platform Services Controller (version 6.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 4‑3. vCenter Server 6.0.x with Embedded Platform Services Controller Deployment Before and After Migration vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server Appliance 6.
vSphere Upgrade Deploy the OVA File for Migrating to the Target vCenter Server Appliance with an Embedded Platform Services Controller To start the migration process, you use the GUI installer to deploy the OVA file that is included in the installer ISO file as the target vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller. Figure 4‑4. vCenter Server 5.5 with Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Migration vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade n For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file. 2 On the Home page, click Migrate. 3 Review the Introduction page to understand the migration process and click Next. 4 Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next. 5 Connect to the target server to which you want to migrate the source vCenter Server. Option Steps You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the target appliance. 1 Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host.
vSphere Upgrade 9 (Optional) Accept the warning message, if any, by clicking Yes. 10 Select the deployment size for the new vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere inventory. Note You cannot select a deployment size that is smaller than the source deployment. Deployment Size Option Description Tiny Deploys an appliance with 2 CPUs and 10 GB of memory. Suitable for environments with up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines Small Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs and 16 GB of memory.
vSphere Upgrade 13 Configure the temporary network for communication between the source vCenter Server and the target vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next. Option Action Choose a network Select the network to which to connect the new appliance temporarily. The networks displayed in the drop-down menu depend on the network settings of the target server.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 Review the introduction to stage 2 of the migration process and click Next. 2 On the Select source vCenter Server page, enter the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password and the root password of the source vCenter Server, enter the password of the user with administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, and click Next. 3 (Optional) Accept the warning message, if any, by clicking Yes.
vSphere Upgrade If you use Update Manager in the vCenter Server deployment on Windows that you migrate, and Update Manager runs on a separate machine from any other of the vCenter Server components, take an extra step to migrate Update Manager to an appliance. 1 If your vCenter Server deployment on Windows uses an external Update Manager, run Migration Assistant on the Update Manager machine to start the migration of the Update Manager server and database to the vCenter Server Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade When migrating vCenter Server instances on Windows in a mixed platform environment with a Platform Services Controller 6.0 appliance, you upgrade the Platform Services Controller appliance to version 6.5 before migrating the vCenter Server instances to appliances.
vSphere Upgrade n Imports and updates the files and settings of the source vCenter Single Sign-On, Platform Services Controller, or vCenter Server instance to the new appliance. Deploy the OVA File for Migrating to a Platform Services Controller Appliance To start the migration process, you use the GUI installer to deploy the OVA file that is included in the installer ISO file as a Platform Services Controller appliance. Figure 4‑8. vCenter Server 5.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file. n For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file. n For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file. n For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file. 2 On the Home page, click Migrate.
vSphere Upgrade 8 9 On the Connect to source page, enter the details of the vCenter Single Sign-On instance or Platform Services Controller instance and click Next. a Enter the IP address or FQDN. b Enter the user name and password of a user who has administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@your_domain_name user. c Enter the Migration Assistant Port you received in the Migration Assistant instructions.
vSphere Upgrade 14 Wait for the OVA deployment process to complete and click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of the migration process to transfer the data from the source vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller and set up the services of the new appliance.
vSphere Upgrade 7 Click OK to confirm the shutdown of the source vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller and initialize the target appliance. 8 Wait for the data transfer and setup process to complete and click OK to go to the Platform Services Controller Getting Started page. The source vCenter Single Sign-On instance or Platform Services Controller instance is migrated from Windows to a target appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Deploy the OVA File for the Target vCenter Server Appliance with an External Platform Services Controller To start the migration process, you use the GUI installer to deploy the OVA file that is included in the installer ISO file as the target vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller Figure 4‑10. vCenter Server 5.5 with External vCenter Single Sign-On Before and After Migration vCenter Server 5.5 vCenter Single Sign-On Operating System vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file. n For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file. n For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file. n For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file. 2 On the Home page, click Migrate.
vSphere Upgrade 8 9 On the Connect to source page, enter the details for the source vCenter Server instance, and click Next. a Enter the IP address or FQDN. b Enter the user name and password of a user who has administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@your_domain_name user. c Enter the Migration Assistant Port you received in the Migration Assistant instructions.
vSphere Upgrade 12 Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next. Storage Size Option Description for Tiny Deployment Size Description for Small Deployment Size Description for Medium Deployment Size Description for Large Deployment Size Description for XLarge Deployment Size Default Deploys an appliance with 250 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 290 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 425 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 640 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade The newly deployed target vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 with an external Platform Services Controller is running on the target server but is not configured. Important The data from the source vCenter Server is not yet transferred and the services of the target appliance are not started.
vSphere Upgrade What to do next Verify that your vCenter Server instances have migrated successfully. For verification steps, see Verify Your vCenter Server Appliance Upgrade or Migration Is Successful. Complete the migration or upgrade of other vCenter Server instances in the configuration as needed. For information on upgrading vCenter Server instances on Windows, see Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows or Upgrade vCenter Server 6.0 on Windows.
vSphere Upgrade Prepare JSON Configuration Files for CLI Migration When you use the CLI process to migrate a source vCenter Server installation to a target vCenter Server Appliance, you must prepare a JSON template with the configuration values for the new appliance. You can migrate vCenter Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, or Platform Services Controller instances from Windows to an appliance by setting values to the configuration parameters in the templates that are available in the installer ISO file.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Fill in values for the required configuration parameters and, optionally, enter additional parameters and their values. Important To set a value that contains the backslash (\) or quotation mark (") character, you must precede the character with the backslash (\) character. For example, "password":"my\"password" sets the password my"password, "image":"C:\\vmware\\vcsa" sets the path C:\vmware\vcsa. The boolean values must contain only lowercase characters. Can be either true or false.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑5. Sections and Subsections of Configuration Parameters in the JSON Migration Templates Section Subsecti on Description new.vcsa - describes the esxi Use only if you want to deploy the appliance directly on an ESXi host. target appliance that you want to migrate to Contains the configuration parameters that describe the target ESXi host. Note You must fill in either the esxi or the vc subsection.
vSphere Upgrade Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section Table 4‑6. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, esxi Subsection Name Type Description hostname string The IP address or FQDN of the target ESXi host on which you want to deploy the appliance. username string A user name with administrative privileges on the target ESXi host, for example, root. password string The password of the user with administrative privileges on the target ESXi host. deployment.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑7. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, vc Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description datastore string The name of the datastore that you want to store all virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks of the appliance. Note The datastore must be accessible from the target ESXi host or DRS cluster. The datastore must have at least 15 GB of free space. port integer The port number of the vCenter Server. The default port is 443.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑8. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection Name Type Description thin.disk.mode Boolean Set to true to deploy the appliance with thin virtual disks. deployment.option string The size of the appliance. n Set to tiny if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller for up to 10 hosts and 100 virtual machines with the default storage size.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑8. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description n Set to large-lstorage if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller for up to 1,000 hosts and 10,000 virtual machines with the large storage size. Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs, 32 GB of memory, and 990 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑8. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description n Set to management-small-xlstorage if you want to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller for up to 100 hosts and 1,000 virtual machines with the x-large storage size. Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs, 16 GB of memory, and 1700 GB of storage.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑8. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, appliance Subsection (Continued) Name Type image string Description Optional. A local file path or URL to the vCenter Server Appliance installation package. By default the installer uses the installation package that is included in the ISO file, in the vcsa folder. name string The VM name for the appliance. Must contain only ASCII characters except a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/) and must be no more
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑10. Configuration Parameters in the new.vcsa Section, temporary.network Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description dns.servers string or array IP addresses of one or more DNS servers. To set more than one DNS server, use a comma-separated list of strings or a commaseparated list as a single string to provide the path. For example, ["x.y.z.a", "x.y.z.b"] or "x.y.z.a, x.y.z.b" Required only if you use static assignment, that is, if you set the mode parameter to static.
vSphere Upgrade n The user name ID must be in the format your_domain_name\\user_ID. Do not use the format user_ID@your_domain_name. Restriction Automatic invocation of Migration Assistant does not work with a Windows account that requires privilege elevation to Administrator. Instead, run Migration Assistant manually on the source Windows machine, copy and paste the thumbprint value from the Migration Assistant console output on the source machine to the migration.ssl.thumbprint key in the vc.
vSphere Upgrade Table 4‑13. Configuration Parameters in the source.vc Section, run.migration.assistant Subsection (Continued) Name Type Description os.username string Administrator user name for the source Windows machine. os.password string Administrator user password for the source Windows machine. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification. migration.ip string The IP address of the network adapter that will be migrated.
vSphere Upgrade Run a Pre-Check Before a CLI Migration to vCenter Server Appliance You can run a pre-check to verify that the migration requirements are met and resolve any problems before migration of your vCenter Server deployment. Before migrating your vCenter Server deployment to an appliance, you can run a pre-check to find out the disk space requirement, the estimated upgrade time, and the extensions registered with vCenter Server Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade n Prepare JSON Configuration Files for CLI Migration. n Run a Pre-Check Before a CLI Migration to vCenter Server Appliance to identify problems and refine your migration plan. n Review the optional arguments for running the migration. See Syntax of the CLI Migrate Command. Procedure 1 Navigate to the software CLI installer directory for your operating system. n If you are deploying the appliance from a machine with Windows OS, navigate to the vcsa-cliinstaller\win32 directory.
vSphere Upgrade The required template argument provides the path of a JSON file that describes the vCenter Server Appliance deployment procedure. Important The string values, including the passwords, must contain only ASCII characters. Extended ASCII and non-ASCII characters are unsupported. To set a value that contains the backslash (\) or quotation mark (") character, you must precede the character with the backslash (\) character. For example, "password":"my\"password" sets the password my"password, "im
vSphere Upgrade Optional Argument Description --precheck-only Installs Migration Assistant on the source vCenter Server virtual machine instance and runs a complete set of prechecks without performing the migration. --acknowledge-ceip Confirms acknowledgement of your VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) participation. This argument is required if ceip.enabled is set to true in the upgrade template.
After Upgrading or Migrating vCenter Server 5 After you upgrade to vCenter Server, consider the post-upgrade options and requirements. n You can review the database upgrade logs. See Collect Database Upgrade Logs. n Complete any component reconfigurations that might be required for changes during upgrade. n Verify that you understand the authentication process and identify your identity sources.
vSphere Upgrade Verify Your vCenter Server Appliance Upgrade or Migration Is Successful You can verify the success of your vCenter Server Appliance upgrade or migration. You must be logged into the upgraded or migrated vCenter Server instance. If you created a reference of required information based or a CLI template, you can use it to validate the upgrade or migration success. Procedure 1 Verify that the IP address is correct. 2 Verify that the Active Directory registration has not changed.
vSphere Upgrade 3 If a warning message about an untrusted SSL certificate appears, select the appropriate action based on your security policy. Option Action Ignore the security warning for this login session only. Click Ignore. Ignore the security warning for this login session, and install the default certificate so that the warning does not appear again. Select Install this certificate and do not display any security warnings for this server and click Ignore.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 Open a Web browser and type the URL for the vSphere Web Client. 2 At the bottom of the vSphere Web Client login page, click Download Enhanced Authentication Plug-in. 3 If the browser blocks the installation either by issuing certificate errors or by running a pop-up blocker, follow the Help instructions for your browser to resolve the problem. 4 Save the plug-in to your computer, and run the executable.
vSphere Upgrade Identity Sources for vCenter Server with vCenter Single Sign-On You can use identity sources to attach one or more domains to vCenter Single Sign-On. A domain is a repository for users and groups that the vCenter Single Sign-On server can use for user authentication. An identity source is a collection of user and group data. The user and group data is stored in Active Directory, OpenLDAP, or locally to the operating system of the machine where vCenter Single Sign-On is installed.
vSphere Upgrade n vCenter Single Sign-On system users. Exactly one system identity source is created when you install vCenter Single Sign-On. Note At any time, only one default domain exists. If a user from a non-default domain logs in, that user must add the domain name (DOMAIN\user) to authenticate successfully. vCenter Single Sign-On identity sources are managed by vCenter Single Sign-On administrator users. You can add identity sources to a vCenter Single Sign-On server instance.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites You must have access to the source vCenter Server Appliance or vCenter Server on Windows. Procedure u To revert a failed migration of vCenter Server, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2146453. VMware, Inc.
Changing a vCenter Server Deployment Type After Upgrade or Migration 6 You can change your vCenter Server deployment type after upgrade or migration to version 6.5. Repoint vCenter Server to Another External Platform Services Controller Joining external Platform Services Controller instances in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain, ensures high availability of your system.
vSphere Upgrade 2 If the vCenter Server instance runs on Windows, in the Windows command prompt, navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin. 3 Run the cmsso-util repoint command. cmsso-util repoint --repoint-psc psc_fqdn_or_static_ip [--dc-port port_number] where the square brackets [ ] enclose the command options. Here, psc_fqdn_or_static_ip is the system name used to identify the Platform Services Controller. This system name must be an FQDN or a static IP address.
Patching and Updating vCenter Server 6.5 Deployments 7 You can update the vCenter Server Appliance with patches by using the software-packages utility available in the vCenter Server Appliance shell. You can update the Java components and vCenter Server for Windows tc Server with VIMPatch.
vSphere Upgrade You can download the patches in ZIP format from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads and build a custom repository on a local Web server. The download filename is VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-product_versionbuild_number-updaterepo.zip. When there are available patches, you can select to apply only the third-party patches that are related to security and third-party products (e.g.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 In a Web browser, go to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, https://appliance-IPaddress-or-FQDN:5480. 2 Log in as root. The default root password is the password you set while deploying the vCenter Server Appliance. Configure the Repository for URL-Based Patching For URL-based patching, by default the vCenter Server Appliance is configured to use the default VMware repository URL that is preset for the build profile of the appliance.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Select the Repository settings. Option Description Use default repository Uses the default VMware repository URL that is preset for the build profile of the appliance. Use specified repository Uses a custom repository. You must enter the repository URL, for example, http://web_server_name.your_company.com/vc_update_repo. If the repository policy requires authentication, enter a user name and password. 5 Click OK.
vSphere Upgrade 2 Click Check Updates and select a source. Option Description Check URL Scans the configured repository URL for available patches Check CDROM Scans the ISO image that you attached to the CD/DVD drive of the appliance for available patches In the Available updates pane, you can view the details about the available patches in the source that you selected. Important Some updates might require a reboot of the system.
vSphere Upgrade The appliance performs regular checks for available patches in the configured repository URL. In the Available updates pane, you can view information about the available patches. You can also view the vCenter Server Appliance health status for notifications about available patches. See vCenter Server Appliance Configuration.
vSphere Upgrade 4 To view details about a specific patch, run the following command: software-packages list --patch patch_name For example, if you want to view the details about the VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-Patch1 patch, run the following command: software-packages list --patch VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-Patch1 You can see the complete list of details about the patch, such as vendor, description, and installation date.
vSphere Upgrade 3 To see information about the current URL-based patching settings, run the update.get command. You can see information about the current repository URL, the default repository URL, the time at which the appliance last checked for patches, the time at which the appliance last installed patches, and the current configuration of automatic checks for patches. 4 Configure the current repository for URL-based patching.
vSphere Upgrade Stage Patches to the vCenter Server Appliance Before you install available patches, you can stage the patches to the appliance. You can use the software-packages utility to stage patches either from a local repository by attaching an ISO image to the appliance, or from a remote repository directly by using a repository URL. Prerequisites n If you are staging patches from an ISO image that you previously downloaded from https://my.vmware.
vSphere Upgrade In the process of staging, the command validates that a patch is a VMware patch, that the staging area has enough free space, and that the patches are not altered. Only completely new patches or patches for existing packages that can be upgraded are staged.
vSphere Upgrade n If you are installing patches directly from an ISO image that you previously downloaded from https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch, you must attach the ISO image to the CD/DVD drive of the vCenter Server Appliance. You can configure the ISO image as a datastore ISO file for the CD/DVD drive of the appliance by using the vSphere Web Client. See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.
vSphere Upgrade 3 If the patch installation requires a reboot of the appliance, run the following command to reset the appliance. shutdown reboot -r "patch reboot" Patch a vCenter High Availability Environment This procedure describes how to patch the Active, Passive, and Witness node if your vCenter Server Appliance is configured in a vCenter High Availability (HA) cluster. A vCenter High Availability cluster consists of three vCenter Server Appliances that act as an Active, Passive, and Witness node.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Patch the Passive node. a From the appliance shell of the Active node, establish an SSH session to the Passive node. ssh root@Passve_node_IP_address b From the appliance shell of the Passive node, patch the Passive node. Use the software-packages utility. c Exit the SSH session to the Passive node. exit 5 Log out from the appliance shell of the Active node. 6 Initiate a vCenter HA failover manually. a Log in to the Active node with the vSphere Web Client and click Configure.
vSphere Upgrade Update the Java Components and vCenter Server tc Server with VIMPatch You can separately update the Java version of all vCenter Server components depending on JRE server by using the VIMPatch ISO file. You can also upgrade the vCenter Server tc Server by using the same patch. You can apply the patch without reinstalling the vCenter Server components. The patch delivers updates for JRE and vCenter Server tc Server.
Upgrading ESXi Hosts 8 After you upgrade vCenter Server and vSphere Update Manager, upgrade VMware ESXi hosts. You can upgrade ESXi 5.5.x and ESXi 6.0.x hosts directly to ESXi 6.5. To upgrade hosts, you can use the tools and methods that are described in Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process. Caution If you upgrade hosts managed by vCenter Server, you must upgrade to vCenter Server before you upgrade ESXi. If you do not upgrade in the correct order, you can lose data and lose access to servers.
vSphere Upgrade n ESXi 6.5 requires a host machine with at least two CPU cores. n ESXi 6.5 supports 64-bit x86 processors released after September 2006. This includes a broad range of multi-core processors. For a complete list of supported processors, see the VMware compatibility guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. n ESXi 6.5 requires the NX/XD bit to be enabled for the CPU in the BIOS. n ESXi 6.5 requires a minimum of 4 GB of physical RAM.
vSphere Upgrade Storage Requirements for ESXi 6.5 Installation or Upgrade Installing ESXi 6.5 or upgrading to ESXi 6.5 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 1 GB. When booting from a local disk, SAN or iSCSI LUN, a 5.2-GB disk is required to allow for the creation of the VMFS volume and a 4-GB scratch partition on the boot device. If a smaller disk or LUN is used, the installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑1. Supported Remote Management Server Models and Minimum Firmware Versions (Continued) Remote Management Server Model Firmware Version Java HP ILO 3 1.28 1.7.0_60-b19 HP ILO 4 1.13 1.7.0_60-b19 IBM RSA 2 1.03, 1.2 1.6.0_22 Recommendations for Enhanced ESXi Performance To enhance performance, install or upgrade ESXi on a robust system with more RAM than the minimum required and with multiple physical disks. For ESXi system requirements, see ESXi Hardware Requirements.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑2. Recommendations for Enhanced Performance (Continued) System Element Recommendation VMFS5 partitioning The ESXi installer creates the initial VMFS volumes on the first blank local disk found. To add disks or modify the original configuration, use the vSphere Web Client. This practice ensures that the starting sectors of partitions are 64K-aligned, which improves storage performance. Note For SAS-only environments, the installer might not format the disks.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑3. Incoming Firewall Connections (Continued) Port Protoc ol Service Description 53 UDP DNS Client DNS client. 8200, 8100, 8300 TCP, UDP Fault Tolerance Traffic between hosts for vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT). 6999 UDP NSX Distributed Logical Router Service NSX Virtual Distributed Router service. The firewall port associated with this service is opened when NSX VIBs are installed and the VDR module is created.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑4. Outgoing Firewall Connections (Continued) Port Protocol Service Description 12345 23451 UDP vSAN Clustering Service Cluster Monitoring, Membership, and Directory Service used by vSAN. 68 UDP DHCP Client DHCP client. 53 TCP, UDP DNS Client DNS client. 80, 8200, 8100, 8300 TCP, UDP Fault Tolerance Supports VMware Fault Tolerance. 3260 TCP Software iSCSI Client Supports software iSCSI.
vSphere Upgrade Required Free Space for System Logging If you used Auto Deploy to install your ESXi 6.5 host, or if you set up a log directory separate from the default location in a scratch directory on the VMFS volume, you might need to change your current log size and rotation settings to ensure that enough space is available for system logging . All vSphere components use this infrastructure.
vSphere Upgrade Supported Browsers Mac OS Windows Linux Microsoft Edge N/A 38+ N/A Safari 9.0+ N/A N/A Before Upgrading ESXi Hosts For a successful upgrade of your ESXi hosts, understand and prepare for the changes that are involved. For a successful ESXi upgrade, follow these best practices: 1 2 Make sure that you understand the ESXi upgrade process, the effect of that process on your existing deployment, and the preparation required for the upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade n 6 7 For the esxcli command method: see Upgrading Hosts by Using esxcli Commands. Plan for the tasks that must be performed after the ESXi host upgrade: n Test the system to ensure that the upgrade completed successfully. n Apply a host's licenses. See Applying Licenses After Upgrading to ESXi 6.5. n Consider setting up a syslog server for remote logging, to ensure sufficient disk storage for log files.
vSphere Upgrade Download and Burn the ESXi Installer ISO Image to a CD or DVD If you do not have an ESXi installation CD/DVD, you can create one. You can also create an installer ISO image that includes a custom installation script. See Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script. Procedure 1 Download the ESXi installer from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. ESXi is listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 If your USB flash drive is not detected as /dev/sdb, or you are not sure how your USB flash drive is detected, determine how it is detected. a At the command line, run the command for displaying the current log messages. tail -f /var/log/messages b Plug in your USB flash drive. You see several messages that identify the USB flash drive in a format similar to the following message. Oct 25 13:25:23 ubuntu kernel: [ 712.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Install the Syslinux bootloader on the USB flash drive. The locations of the Syslinux executable file and the mbr.bin file might vary for the different Syslinux versions. For example, if you downloaded Syslinux 6.02, run the following commands. /usr/bin/syslinux /dev/sdb1 cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin > /dev/sdb 5 Create a destination directory and mount the USB flash drive to it.
vSphere Upgrade The instructions in this procedure assume that the USB flash drive is detected as /dev/sdb. Note The ks file containing the installation or upgrade script cannot be on the same USB flash drive that you are using to boot the installation or upgrade. Prerequisites n Linux machine n ESXi installation or upgrade script, the ks.cfg kickstart file n USB flash drive Procedure 1 Attach the USB flash drive to a Linux machine that has access to the installation or upgrade script.
vSphere Upgrade What to do next When you boot the ESXi installer, point to the location of the USB flash drive for the installation or upgrade script. See Enter Boot Options to Start an Installation or Upgrade Script and PXELINUX Configuration Files. Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script You can customize the standard ESXi installer ISO image with your own installation or upgrade script.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Recreate the ISO image using the mkisofs or the genisoimage command. Command Syntax mkisofs mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -bootinfo-table -eltorito-alt-boot -eltorito-platform efi -b efiboot.img -no-emul-boot /esxi_cdrom genisoimage genisoimage -relaxed-filenames -J -R -o custom_esxi.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -bootinfo-table -eltorito-alt-boot -e efiboot.
vSphere Upgrade Many DHCP servers can PXE boot hosts. If you are using a version of DHCP for Microsoft Windows, see the DHCP server documentation to determine how to pass the next-server and filename arguments to the target machine. Example of Booting Using TFTP with IPv4 This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi using a TFTP server at IPv4 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. # # ISC DHCP server configuration file snippet.
vSphere Upgrade Example of Booting Using HTTP with IPv4 This example shows how to configure an ISC DHCP server to boot ESXi using a Web server at IPv4 address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. The example uses gPXELINUX for legacy BIOS hosts and iPXE for UEFI hosts. # # ISC DHCPv6 server configuration file snippet. This is not a complete # configuration file; see the ISC server documentation for details on # how to configure the DHCP server.
vSphere Upgrade } else { # Load the snponly.efi configuration of iPXE as initial bootloader option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx]/snponly.efi"; } When a machine attempts to PXE boot, the DHCP server provides an IP address and the location of the snponly.efi (iPXE) binary file on the TFTP server. iPXE then asks the DHCP server for the next file to load, and this time the server returns mboot.efi as the filename.
vSphere Upgrade PXE Boot Background Information Understanding the PXE boot process can help you during troubleshooting. TFTP Server Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is similar to the FTP service, and is typically used only for network booting systems or loading firmware on network devices such as routers. TFTP is available on Linux and Windows. n Most Linux distributions include a copy of the tftp-hpa server.
vSphere Upgrade iPXE can also be useful for UEFI systems that do not include PXE in firmware and for older UEFI systems with bugs in their PXE support. For such cases you can try installing iPXE on a USB flash drive and booting from there. Note Apple Macintosh products do not include PXE boot support. They include support for network booting via an Apple-specific protocol instead.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 Download the ESXi installer from the VMware Web site at https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads. ESXi is listed under Datacenter & Cloud Infrastructure. 2 Confirm that the md5sum is correct. See the VMware Web site topic Using MD5 Checksums at http://www.vmware.com/download/md5.html. Upgrade Hosts Interactively To upgrade ESXi 5.5 hosts or ESXi 6.0 hosts to ESXi 6.5, you can boot the ESXi installer from a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive.
vSphere Upgrade 3 In the Select a Disk panel, select the drive on which to install or upgrade ESXi and press Enter. Press F1 for information about the selected disk. Note Do not rely on the disk order in the list to select a disk. The disk order is determined by the BIOS. On systems where drives are continuously being added and removed, they might be out of order. 4 Upgrade or install ESXi if the installer finds an existing ESXi installation and VMFS datastore.
vSphere Upgrade To specify the location of the installation script, set the ks=filepath option, where filepath is indicates the location of your Kickstart file. Otherwise, a scripted installation or upgrade cannot start. If ks=filepath is omitted, the text installer is run. Supported boot options are listed in Boot Options. Procedure 1 Start the host. 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑7. Boot Options for ESXi Installation (Continued) Boot Option Description ip=ip address Sets up a static IP address to be used for downloading the installation script and the installation media. Note: the PXELINUX format for this option is also supported. See the IPAPPEND option under SYSLINUX at the syslinux.zytor.com site. ks=cdrom:/path Performs a scripted installation with the script at path, which resides on the CD in the CD-ROM drive.
vSphere Upgrade About Installation and Upgrade Scripts The installation/upgrade script is a text file, for example ks.cfg, that contains supported commands. The command section of the script contains the ESXi installation options. This section is required and must appear first in the script. Locations Supported for Installation or Upgrade Scripts In scripted installations and upgrades, the ESXi installer can access the installation or upgrade script, also called the kickstart file, from several locations.
vSphere Upgrade clearpart (optional) Clears any existing partitions on the disk. Requires the install command to be specified. Carefully edit the clearpart command in your existing scripts. --drives= Remove partitions on the specified drives. --alldrives Ignores the --drives= requirement and allows clearing of partitions on every drive. --ignoredrives= Removes partitions on all drives except those specified. Required unless the --drives= or --alldrives flag is specified.
vSphere Upgrade n VML name: --disk=vml.000000034211234 n vmkLUN UID: --disk=vmkLUN_UID For accepted disk name formats, see Disk Device Names. --firstdisk= disk-type1, Partitions the first eligible disk found. By default, the eligible disks are set to the following order: [disk-type2,...] 1 Locally attached storage (local) 2 Network storage (remote) 3 USB disks (usb) You can change the order of the disks by using a comma-separated list appended to the argument.
vSphere Upgrade n If you select an HDD disk, and the disk group size is two or less, the SSD and the selected HDD will be wiped. For more information about managing vSAN disk groups, see the vSphere Storage documentation. --overwritevmfs Required to overwrite an existing VMFS datastore on the disk before installation. --preservevmfs Preserves an existing VMFS datastore on the disk during installation. --novmfsondisk Prevents a VMFS partition from being created on this disk.
vSphere Upgrade --overwritevsan You must use the --overwritevsan option when you install ESXi on a disk, either SSD or HDD (magnetic), that is in a vSAN disk group. If you use this option and no vSAN partition is on the selected disk, the installation will fail. When you install ESXi on a disk that is in a vSAN disk group, the result depends on the disk that you select: n If you select an SSD, the SSD and all underlying HDDs in the same disk group will be wiped.
vSphere Upgrade n Norwegian n Polish n Portuguese n Russian n Slovenian n Spanish n Swedish n Swiss French n Swiss German n Turkish n Ukrainian n United Kingdom n US Default n US Dvorak serialnum or vmserialnum (optional) Deprecated in ESXi 5.0.x. Supported in ESXi 5.1 and later. Configures licensing. If not included, ESXi installs in evaluation mode. --esx= Specifies the vSphere license key to use.
vSphere Upgrade --nameserver= Designates the primary name server as an IP address. Used with the -bootproto=static option. Omit this option if you do not intend to use DNS. The --nameserver option can accept two IP addresses. For example: -nameserver="10.126.87.104[,10.126.87.120]" --netmask= Specifies the subnet mask for the installed system, in the form 255.xxx.xxx.xxx. Used with the --bootproto=static option. --hostname= Specifies the host name for the installed system.
vSphere Upgrade driver rather than a normal local disk, the argument is --firstdisk=ST3120814A,mptsas,local. You can use localesx for local storage that contains ESXi image or remoteesx for remote storage that contains ESXi image. reboot (optional) Reboots the machine after the scripted installation is complete. <--noeject> The CD is not ejected after the installation. rootpw (required) Sets the root password for the system. --iscrypted Specifies that the password is encrypted.
vSphere Upgrade driver rather than a normal local disk, the argument is --firstdisk=ST3120814A,mptsas,local. You can use localesx for local storage that contains ESXi image or remoteesx for remote storage that contains ESXi image. %include or include (optional) Specifies another installation script to parse. This command is treated similarly to a multiline command, but takes only one argument. filename For example: %include part.
vSphere Upgrade =[python|busybox] Note You cannot check the semantics of the %firstboot script until the system boots for the first time. If the script contains errors, they are not exposed until after the installation is complete. Disk Device Names The install, upgrade, and installorupgrade installation script commands require the use of disk device names. Table 8‑8. Disk Device Names Format Example Description VML vml.00025261 The device name as reported by the VMkernel MPX mpx.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑9. Commands in boot.cfg . (Continued) Command Description kernelopt=STRING Appends STRING to the kernel boot options. modules=FILEPATH1 --- FILEPATH2... --- FILEPATHn Lists the modules to be loaded, separated by three hyphens (---). See Create an Installer ISO Image with a Custom Installation or Upgrade Script and PXE Booting the ESXi Installer.
vSphere Upgrade 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified.
vSphere Upgrade 2 When the ESXi installer window appears, press Shift+O to edit boot options. 3 Type a boot option that calls the default installation or upgrade script or an installation or upgrade script file that you created. The boot option has the form ks=. 4 Press Enter. The installation, upgrade, or migration runs, using the options that you specified. Performing a Scripted Installation or Upgrade of ESXi by Using PXE to Boot the Installer ESXi 6.
vSphere Upgrade PXE booting requires some network infrastructure and a machine with a PXE-capable network adapter. Most machines that can run ESXi have network adapters that can PXE boot. Note PXE booting with legacy BIOS firmware is possible only over IPv4. PXE booting with UEFI firmware is possible with either IPv4 or IPv6.
vSphere Upgrade The interaction between the ESXi host and other servers proceeds as follows: 1 The user boots the target ESXi host. 2 The target ESXi host makes a DHCP request. 3 The DHCP server responds with the IP information and the location of the TFTP server. 4 The ESXi host contacts the TFTP server and requests the file that the DHCP server specified. 5 The TFTP server sends the network boot loader, and the ESXi host executes it.
vSphere Upgrade n Use a native VLAN in most cases. If you want to specify the VLAN ID to be used with PXE booting, check that your NIC supports VLAN ID specification. For legacy BIOS systems, version 3.86 of the SYSLINUX package, available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/. Procedure 1 Configure the DHCP server for TFTP boot. 2 (Legacy BIOS only) Obtain and configure PXELINUX: a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the pxelinux.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Modify the boot.cfg file a Add the following line: prefix=ESXi-6.x.x-xxxxxx Here, ESXi-6.x.x-xxxxxx is the pathname of the installer files relative to the TFTP server's root directory. b If the filenames in the kernel= and modules= lines begin with a forward slash (/) character, delete that character. 7 (Optional) For a scripted installation, in the boot.cfg file, add the kernelopt option to the line after the kernel command, to specify the location of the installation script.
vSphere Upgrade n Target host with a hardware configuration that is supported for your version of ESXi. See the VMware Compatibility Guide. n Network adapter with PXE support on the target ESXi host. n DHCP server configured for PXE booting. See Sample DHCP Configurations. n TFTP server. n Network security policies to allow TFTP traffic (UDP port 69). n For legacy BIOS, you can use only IPv4 networking. For UEFI PXE boot, you can use IPv4 or IPv6 networking.
vSphere Upgrade 4 (Legacy BIOS only) Obtain and configure PXELINUX: a Obtain SYSLINUX version 3.86, unpack it, and copy the gpxelinux.0 file to the toplevel /tftpboot directory on your TFTP server. b Create a PXELINUX configuration file using the following code model. ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX is the name of the TFTP subdirectory that contains the ESXi installer files. DEFAULT install NOHALT 1 LABEL install KERNEL ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX/mboot.c32 APPEND -c ESXi-6.x.x-XXXXXX/boot.
vSphere Upgrade 9 (UEFI only) Specify whether you want for all UEFI hosts to boot the same installer. Option Description Same installer Copy or link the boot.cfg file to /tftpboot/boot.cfg Different installers a Create a subdirectory of /tftpboot named after the MAC address of the target host machine (01-mac_address_of_target_ESXi_host), for example, 01-23-45-67-89-0a-bc. b Place a copy of (or a link to) the host's boot.cfg file in that directory, for example, /tftpboot/01-23-45-67-89-0a-bc/boot.
vSphere Upgrade VIBs, Image Profiles, and Software Depots Upgrading ESXi with esxcli commands requires an understanding of VIBs, image profiles, and software depots. The following technical terms are used throughout the vSphere documentation set in discussions of installation and upgrade tasks. VIB A VIB is an ESXi software package. VMware and its partners package solutions, drivers, CIM providers, and applications that extend the ESXi platform as VIBs. VIBs are available in software depots.
vSphere Upgrade VMware supports the following acceptance levels. VMwareCertified The VMwareCertified acceptance level has the most stringent requirements. VIBs with this level go through thorough testing fully equivalent to VMware in-house Quality Assurance testing for the same technology. Today, only I/O Vendor Program (IOVP) program drivers are published at this level. VMware takes support calls for VIBs with this acceptance level.
vSphere Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt. Prerequisites Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
vSphere Upgrade Determine Whether an Update Requires the Host to Be in Maintenance Mode or to Be Rebooted VIBs that you can install with live install do not require the host to be rebooted, but might require the host to be placed in maintenance mode. Other VIBs and profiles might require the host to be rebooted after the installation or update. When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password.
vSphere Upgrade What to do next If necessary, place the host in maintenance mode. See Place a Host in Maintenance Mode. If a reboot is required, and if the host belongs to a VMware HA cluster, remove the host from the cluster or disable HA on the cluster before the installation or update. Place a Host in Maintenance Mode Some installation and update operations that use live install require the host to be in maintenance mode.
vSphere Upgrade Update a Host with Individual VIBs You can update a host with VIBs stored in a software depot that is accessible through a URL or in an offline ZIP depot. Important If you are updating ESXi from a zip bundle in a VMware-supplied depot, either online from the VMware Web site or downloaded locally, VMware supports only the update method specified for VMware-supplied depots in the topic Upgrade or Update a Host with Image Profiles.
vSphere Upgrade 3 Update the existing VIBs to include the VIBs in the depot or install new VIBs.
vSphere Upgrade When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported. For a list of connection options, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces, or run esxcli --help at the vCLI command prompt.
vSphere Upgrade 3 Update the existing image profile to include the VIBs or install new VIBs. Important The software profile update command updates existing VIBS with the corresponding VIBs from the specified profile, but does not affect other VIBs installed on the target server. The software profile install command installs the VIBs present in the depot image profile, and removes any other VIBS installed on the target server.
vSphere Upgrade 4 Verify that the VIBs are installed on your ESXi host. esxcli --server=server_name software vib list Update ESXi Hosts by Using Zip Files You can update hosts with VIBs or image profiles by downloading a ZIP file of a depot. VMware partners prepare third-party VIBs to provide management agents or asynchronously released drivers.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites n If the removal requires a reboot, and if the host belongs to a VMware HA cluster, disable HA for the host. n Determine whether the update requires the host to be in maintenance mode or to be rebooted. If necessary, place the host in maintenance mode. See Determine Whether an Update Requires the Host to Be in Maintenance Mode or to Be Rebooted. See Place a Host in Maintenance Mode. n Install vCLI or deploy the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) virtual machine.
vSphere Upgrade For example, the command to remove a VIB specified by vendor, name and version would take this form: esxcli –-server myEsxiHost software vib remove --vibname=PatchVendor:patch42:version3 Note The remove command supports several more options. See the vSphere Command-Line Interface Reference. Adding Third-Party Extensions to Hosts with an esxcli Command You can use the esxcli software vib command to add to the system a third-party extension released as a VIB package.
vSphere Upgrade Display the Installed VIBs and Profiles That Will Be Active After the Next Host Reboot You can use the --rebooting-image option to list the VIBs and profiles that are installed on the host and will be active after the next host reboot. When you specify a target server by using --server=server_name, the server prompts you for a user name and password. Other connection options, such as a configuration file or session file, are supported.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 Enter the following command. esxcli --server=server_name software profile get 2 Review the output. After You Upgrade ESXi Hosts To complete a host upgrade, you ensure that the host is reconnected to its managing vCenter Server system and reconfigured if necessary. You also check that the host is licensed correctly. After you upgrade an ESXi host, take the following actions: n View the upgrade logs. You can use the vSphere Web Client to export the log files.
vSphere Upgrade For example, suppose that you use an ESXi host in evaluation mode for 20 days and then assign a vSphere Standard Edition license key to the host. If you set the host back in evaluation mode, you can explore the entire set of features for the host for the remaining evaluation period of 40 days. For information about managing licensing for ESXi hosts, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation. Applying Licenses After Upgrading to ESXi 6.5 After you upgrade to ESXi 6.
vSphere Upgrade UEFI secure boot also requires an up-to-date bootloader. This script does not check for an up-to-date bootloader. Prerequisites n Verify that the hardware supports UEFI secure boot. n Verify that all VIBs are signed with an acceptance level of at least PartnerSupported. If you include VIBs at the CommunitySupported level, you cannot use secure boot. Procedure 1 Upgrade the ESXi and run the following command. /usr/lib/vmware/secureboot/bin/secureBoot.py -c 2 Check the output.
vSphere Upgrade Table 8‑11.
vSphere Upgrade Option Description Syslog.global.logDirUnique Selecting this option creates a subdirectory with the name of the ESXi host under the directory specified by Syslog.global.LogDir. A unique directory is useful if the same NFS directory is used by multiple ESXi hosts. Syslog.global.LogHost Remote host to which syslog messages are forwarded and port on which the remote host receives syslog messages. You can include the protocol and the port, for example, ssl://hostName1:1514.
Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts 9 If a host was deployed using vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use vSphere Auto Deploy to reprovision the host with a new image profile that contains a different version of ESXi. You can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder to create and manage image profiles. Note If you upgrade the host to use an ESXi 6.0 or later image, the vSphere Auto Deploy server provisions the ESXi host with certificates that are signed by VMCA.
vSphere Upgrade Table 9‑1. vSphere Auto Deploy Stores Information for Deployment Information Type Description Source of Information Image state The executable software to run on an ESXi host. Image profile, created with vSphere ESXi Image Builder. Configuration state The configurable settings that determine how the host is configured, for example, virtual switches and their settings, driver settings, boot parameters, and so on. Host profile, created by using the host profile UI.
vSphere Upgrade Figure 9‑1. vSphere Auto Deploy Architecture Auto Deploy PowerCLI Host profiles and host customization Host profile UI Rules Engine Image Builder PowerCLI Image Profiles Auto Deploy server (Web server) Host profile engine ESXi host Plug-in Fetch of predefined image profiles and VIBs HTTP fetch of images/VIBs and host profiles (iPXE boot and update) VIBs and image profiles Public depot vSphere Auto Deploy server Serves images and host profiles to ESXi hosts.
vSphere Upgrade Host profiles Define machine-specific configuration such as networking or storage setup. Use the host profile UI to create host profiles. You can create a host profile for a reference host and apply that host profile to other hosts in your environment for a consistent configuration. Host customization Stores information that the user provides when host profiles are applied to the host.
vSphere Upgrade n If you want to use VLANs in your vSphere Auto Deploy environment, you must set up the end to end networking properly. When the host is PXE booting, the firmware driver must be set up to tag the frames with proper VLAN IDs. You must do this set up manually by making the correct changes in the UEFI/BIOS interface. You must also correctly configure the ESXi port groups with the correct VLAN IDs. Ask your network administrator how VLAN IDs are used in your environment.
vSphere Upgrade 2 Configure the vSphere Auto Deploy service startup type. a Log in to your vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Web Client. b On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Administration. c Under System Configuration click Services. d Select Auto Deploy, click the Actions menu, and select Edit Startup Type. n On Windows, the vSphere Auto Deploy service is disabled. In the Edit Startup Type window, select Manual or Automatic to enable vSphere Auto Deploy.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Set up your DHCP server to point to the TFTP server on which the TFTP ZIP file is located. a Specify the TFTP Server's IP address in DHCP option 66, frequently called next-server. b Specify the boot file name, which is snponly64.efi.vmw-hardwired for UEFI or undionly.kpxe.vmw-hardwired for BIOS in the DHCP option 67, frequently called bootfilename. 7 Set each host you want to provision with vSphere Auto Deploy to network boot or PXE boot, following the manufacturer's instructions.
vSphere Upgrade You can type cmdlets, parameters, and parameter values in the PowerCLI shell. n Get help for any cmdlet by running Get-Helpcmdlet_name. n Remember that PowerShell is not case sensitive. n Use tab completion for cmdlet names and parameter names. n Format any variable and cmdlet output by using Format-List or Format-Table, or their short forms fl or ft. For more information, run the Get-Help Format-List cmdlet.
vSphere Upgrade Set Up Bulk Licensing You can use the vSphere Web Client or ESXi Shell to specify individual license keys, or you can set up bulk licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets. Bulk licensing works for all ESXi hosts, but is especially useful for hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy. Assigning license keys through the vSphere Web Client and assigning licensing by using PowerCLI cmdlets function differently.
vSphere Upgrade 3 Create a new LicenseData object and a LicenseKeyEntry object with associated type ID and license key. $licenseData = New-Object VMware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseData $licenseKeyEntry = New-Object Vmware.VimAutomation.License.Types.LicenseKeyEntry $licenseKeyEntry.TypeId = "vmware-vsphere” $licenseKeyEntry.LicenseKey = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" 4 Associate the LicenseKeys attribute of the LicenseData object you created in step 3 with the LicenseKeyEntry object.
vSphere Upgrade Reprovision Hosts with Simple Reboot Operations A simple reboot of a host that is provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy requires only that all prerequisites are still met. The process uses the previously assigned image profile, host profile, custom script, and vCenter Server location. Prerequisites n Verify that the setup you performed during the first boot operation is in place. n Verify that all associated items like are available.
vSphere Upgrade Prerequisites n Verify that the image profile you want to use to reprovision the host is available. Use vSphere ESXi Image Builder in a PowerCLI session. See "Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI" in the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation. n Verify that the setup you performed during the first boot operation is in place.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Test the rule compliance for each host that you want to deploy the image to. a Verify that you can access the host for which you want to test rule set compliance. Get-VMHost -Name ESXi_hostname b Run the cmdlet that tests rule set compliance for the host, and bind the return value to a variable for later use. $tr = Test-DeployRuleSetCompliance ESXi_hostname c Examine the differences between the contents of the rule set and configuration of the host. $tr.
vSphere Upgrade Procedure 1 In a PowerCLI session, run the Connect-VIServer cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that vSphere Auto Deploy is registered with. Connect-VIServer ipv4_or_ipv6_address The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning.
vSphere Upgrade n Verify that your infrastructure includes one or more ESXi hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy, and that the host on which you installed PowerCLI can access those ESXi hosts. Procedure 1 In a PowerCLI session, run the Connect-VIServer cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that vSphere Auto Deploy is registered with. Connect-VIServer ipv4_or_ipv6_address The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning.
vSphere Upgrade 7 Remediate the host to use the revised rule set the next time you boot the host. Repair-DeployRuleSetCompliance $tr What to do next If the rule you changed specified the inventory location, the change takes effect when you repair compliance. For all other changes, reboot your host to have vSphere Auto Deploy apply the new rule and to achieve compliance between the rule set and the host. VMware, Inc.
Changing a vCenter Server Deployment Type After Upgrade or Migration 10 You can change your vCenter Server deployment type after upgrade or migration to version 6.5. Repoint vCenter Server to Another External Platform Services Controller Joining external Platform Services Controller instances in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain, ensures high availability of your system.
vSphere Upgrade 2 If the vCenter Server instance runs on Windows, in the Windows command prompt, navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin. 3 Run the cmsso-util repoint command. cmsso-util repoint --repoint-psc psc_fqdn_or_static_ip [--dc-port port_number] where the square brackets [ ] enclose the command options. Here, psc_fqdn_or_static_ip is the system name used to identify the Platform Services Controller. This system name must be an FQDN or a static IP address.
Troubleshooting a vSphere Upgrade 11 The installation and upgrade software enables you to identify problems on the host machine that can cause an installation, upgrade, or migration to fail. For interactive installations, upgrades, and migrations, the errors or warnings are displayed on the final panel of the installer, where you are asked to confirm or cancel the installation or upgrade. For scripted installations, upgrades, or migrations, the errors or warnings are written to the installation log file.
vSphere Upgrade Collecting Logs for Troubleshooting a vCenter Server Installation or Upgrade You can collect installation or upgrade log files for vCenter Server. If an installation or upgrade fails, checking the log files can help you identify the source of the failure. You can choose the Installation Wizard method or the manual method for saving and recovering log files for a vCenter Server for Windows installation failure. You can also collect deployment log files for vCenter Server Appliance.
vSphere Upgrade Collect Installation Logs by Using the Installation Wizard You can use the Setup Interrupted page of the installation wizard to browse to the generated .zip file of the vCenter Server for Windows installation log files. If the installation fails, the Setup Interrupted page appears with the log collection check boxes selected by default. Procedure 1 Leave the check boxes selected and click Finish. The installation files are collected in a .
vSphere Upgrade You can examine the log files for the details of your database upgrade process. Example: Database Upgrade Locations n For pre-upgrade checks, review the %TEMP%\..\vcsUpgrade\vcdb_req.out file. The vcdb_req.err file tracks any errors that were identified during the pre-upgrade phase. n For export details, review the %TEMP%\..\vcsUpgrade\vcdb_export.out file. The vcdb_export.err file contains errors that were identified during the export phase of the upgrade.
vSphere Upgrade Table 11‑1. Error and Warning Codes That Are Returned by the Installation and Upgrade Precheck Script (Continued) Error or Warning Description DISTRIBUTED_VIRTUAL_SWITCH If the Cisco Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) software is found on the host, the test checks that the upgrade also contains the VEM software. The test also determines whether the upgrade supports the same version of the Cisco Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) as the existing version on the host.
vSphere Upgrade Table 11‑1. Error and Warning Codes That Are Returned by the Installation and Upgrade Precheck Script (Continued) Error or Warning Description SPACE_AVAIL_CONFIG vSphere Update Manager only. The host disk must have enough free space to store the legacy configuration between reboots. SUPPORTED_ESX_VERSION You can upgrade or migrate to ESXi 6.5 only from version 5.5 or 6.0 ESXi hosts. TBOOT_REQUIRED This message applies only to vSphere Update Manager upgrades.
vSphere Upgrade Roll Back a vCenter Server Instance on Windows When vCenter Server Upgrade Fails You can roll back or restore a vCenter Server instance on Windows when an upgrade of vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller fails after the export stage and the legacy environment has been uninstalled. Prerequisites The roll back or restore of vCenter Server applies when all of the following conditions apply: n You must have access to the vCenter Server on Windows machine.
vSphere Upgrade d n Ensure that the vCenter Server services are up and running. Use Rollback Method 2. a Restore the Platform Services Controller instance from a snapshot to the point where you were about to start vCenter Server upgrade. You can use a backup for a Windows configuration or use another backup and restore approach to revert the snapshot. b Restore the vCenter Server instance from a snapshot. c Restore the vCenter Server database from a snapshot.
vSphere Upgrade 6 Rerun the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 upgrade. See Upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 or 6.0 with an Embedded vCenter Single Sign-On or Platform Services Controller by Using the GUI. Microsoft SQL Database Set to Unsupported Compatibility Mode Causes vCenter Server Installation or Upgrade to Fail vCenter Server installation with a Microsoft SQL database fails when the database is set to compatibility mode with an unsupported version.
