Tag: vCenter

vCenter

How to Consolidate vCenter External PSC with the vSphere Converge Tool

by esxsi4 Comments on How to Consolidate vCenter External PSC with the vSphere Converge Tool

VMware vSphere 6.0 reached end of general support 12 March 2020, with vSphere 6.5 scheduled for 15 October 2022, both referenced in the VMware Lifecycle Matrix. See also How to Install vSphere 7.0. Upgrade to vSphere 7 can be achieved directly from vSphere 6.5.0 and above, whereas vSphere 6.0 requires an intermediate upgrade to 6.5 or 6.7 first. For more information see the VMware Upgrade Matrix. Finally, the Windows vCenter Server and external PSC deployment models are now depreciated and not available with vSphere 7.0.

This post gives an overview of the vCenter Server converge process using the HTML5 vSphere client. The converge functionality was added to the GUI with vSphere 6.7 U2, and enables consolidation of external Platform Services Controller (PSC) into the embedded deployment model. This was previously achieved in vSphere 6.5 onwards using a CLI tool.

Following an upgrade of 4 existing vCenter Servers with external PSC nodes I log into the vSphere client. From the drop-down menu click Administration, on the left hand task pane under Deployment I select System Configuration. The starting topology is as follows:

PSC_4

You can view a VMware produced tutorial below, or the documentation here.

As the vCenter Server appliances do not need internet access I need to mount the ISO I used for the vCenter upgrade, see here for more information. This step is not required if internet connectivity exists.

For each vCenter Server with external PSC I select Converge to Embedded.

PSC_1

Next I confirm the Single Sign-On (SSO) details and click Converge.

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If I am logged into the vCenter Server being converged I will be kicked out while services are restarted.

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Alternatively if I am logged into another vCenter Server in linked mode I can monitor progress.

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Once all 4 vCenter Servers have been converged I check that each of the vCenter Servers is using the embedded PSC, SSH to the vCenter appliance in shell run:

/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-ls-location --server-name localhost

The command should return the vCenter Server for the lookup service, and not the external PSC node. Once you are happy there are no outstanding connection to the external PSC nodes remove them by selecting them individually and clicking Decommission PSC.

PSC_7
PSC_8

With the converge process now complete and the PSC nodes decommissioned, the topology is as desired with all vCenter Servers running embedded PSC.

PSC_9

At this point I needed to re-register any external appliances (such as NSX Manager) or third party services that are pointing at the lookup service URL, or referencing the old external PSC node. I also cleaned up DNS as part of the decommission process.

SRM

VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x Upgrade Guide

by esxsi1 Comment on VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.x Upgrade Guide

This post will walk through an inplace upgrade of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to version 8.1, which introduces support for the vSphere HTML5 client and recovery / migration to VMware on AWS. Read more about what’s new in this blog post. The upgrade is relatively simple but we need to cross-check compatibility and perform validation tests after running the upgrade installer.

SRM81

Planning

  • The Site Recovery Manager upgrade retains configuration and information such as recovery plans and history but does not preserve any advanced settings
  • Protection groups and recovery plans also need to be in a valid state to be retained, any invalid configurations or not migrated
  • Check the upgrade path here, for Site Recovery Manager 8.1 we can upgrade from 6.1.2 and later
  • If vSphere Replication is in use then upgrade vSphere Replication first, following the steps outlined here
  • Site Recovery Manager 8.1 is compatible with vSphere 6.0 U3 onwards, and VMware Tools 10.1 and onwards, see the compatibility matrices page here for full details
  • Ensure the vCenter and Platform Services Controller are running and available
  • In Site Recovery Manager 8.1 the version number is decoupled from vSphere, however check that you do not need to perform an upgrade for compatibility
  • For other VMware products check the product interoperability site here
  • If you are unsure of the upgrade order for VMware components see the Order of Upgrading vSphere and Site Recovery Manager Components page here
  • Make a note of any advanced settings you may have configured under Sites > Site > Manage > Advanced Settings
  • Confirm you have Platform Services Controller details, the administrator@vsphere.local password, and the database details and password

Download the VMware Site Recovery Manager 8.1.0.4 self extracting installer here to the server, and if applicable; the updated Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) – for storage replication. Review the release notes here, and SRM upgrade documentation centre here.

Database Backup

Before starting the upgrade make sure you take a backup of the embedded vPostgres database, or the external database. Full instructions can be found here, in summary:

  • Log into the SRM Windows server and stop the VMware Site Recovery Manager service
  • From command prompt run the following commands, replacing the db_username and srm_backup_name parameters, and the install path and port if they were changed from the default settings
cd C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Embedded Database\bin
pg_dump -Fc --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5678 --username=db_username srm_db > srm_backup_name
  • If you need to restore the vPostgres database follow the instructions here

In addition to backing up the database check the health of the SRM servers and confirm there are no pending reboots. Log into the vSphere web client and navigate to the Site Recovery section, verify there are no pending cleanup operations or configuration issues, all recovery plans and protection groups should be in a Ready state.

Process

As identified above, vSphere Replication should be upgraded before Site Recovery Manager. In this instance we are using Nimble storage replication, so the Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) should be upgraded first. Download and run the installer for the SRA upgrade, in most cases it is a simple next, install, finish.

 

We can now commence the Site Recovery Manager upgrade, it is advisable to take a snapshot of the server and ensure backups are in place. On the SRM server run the executable downloaded earlier.

  • Select the installer language and click Ok, then Next
  • Click Next on the patent screen, accept the EULA and click Next again
  • Double-check you have performed all pre-requisite tasks and click Next
  • Enter the FQDN of the Platform Services Controller and the SSO admin password, click Next
  • The vCenter Server address is auto-populated, click Next
  • The administrator email address and local host ports should again be auto-populated, click Next
  • Click Yes when prompted to overwrite registration
  • Select the appropriate certificate option, in this case keeping the existing certificate, click Next
  • Check the database details and enter the password for the database account, click Next
  • Configure the service account to run the SRM service, again this will be retain the existing settings by default, click Next
  • Click Install and Finish once complete

 

Post-Upgrade

After Site Recovery Manager is upgraded log into the vSphere client. If the Site Recovery option does not appear immediately you may need to clear your browser cache, or restart the vSphere client service.

SRM_81

On the summary page confirm both sites are connected, you may need to reconfigure the site pair if you encounter connection problems.

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Validate the recovery plan and run a test to confirm there are no configuration errors.

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The test should complete successfully.

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I can also check the replication status and Storage Replication Adapter status.

SRM_81_4

vCenter

Configuring vCenter 6.7 High Availability

by esxsi8 Comments on Configuring vCenter 6.7 High Availability

VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 reaches end of general support 15 October 2022, both referenced in the VMware Lifecycle Matrix. See also How to Install vSphere 7.0. Upgrade to vSphere 7 can be achieved directly from vSphere 6.5.0 and above, for more information see the VMware Upgrade Matrix. Finally, the Windows vCenter Server and external PSC deployment models are now depreciated and not available with vSphere 7.0.

The vCenter Server Appliance has provided vCenter High Availability (HA) with vSphere 6.5 onwards. In the fully functioning HTML5 release of vCenter 6.7 Update 1 onwards the setup of vCenter HA was hugely simplified. Read more about the improvements made in vSphere 6.7U1 in this blog post. By implementing vCenter HA you can protect your vCenter from host and hardware failures, and significantly reduce down time during patching due to the active / standby nature of the vCenter cluster.

The vCenter HA architecture is made up of the components in the vSphere image below. The vCenter Server Appliance is cloned out to create passive and witness nodes. Updated data is replicated between the active and passive nodes. In the event of an outage to the active vCenter the passive vCenter automatically assumes the active role and identity. Management connections still route to the same IP address and FQDN, however they have now failed over to the replica node. When the outage is resolved and the vCenter that failed comes back online; it then takes on the role of the passive node, and receives replication data from the active vCenter Server.

vCenter_HA

Requirements

  • vCenter HA was introduced with the vCenter Server Appliance 6.5
  • The vCenter deployment size should be at least small, and therefore 4 vCPU 16 GB RAM
  • A minimum of three hosts
  • The hosts should be running at least ESXi 5.5
  • The management network should be configured with a static IP address and reachable FQDN
  • SSH should be enabled on the VCSA
  • A port group for the HA network is required on each ESXi host
  • The HA network must be on a different subnet to the management network
  • Network latency between the nodes must be less than 10ms
  • vCenter HA is compatible with both embedded deployment model and external PSC
  • For further information on vCenter HA performance and best practises see this post

If you are configuring vCenter HA on a version of vCenter prior to 6.7 Update 1 then see this post. If you are configuring vCenter HA in a cluster with less than the required number of physical hosts, such as in a home lab, you can add a parameter to override the anti-affinity setting; see this post by William Lam.

Configuring vCenter HA

Log into the vSphere client and select the top level vCenter Server in the inventory. Click the Configure tab and vCenter HA. The vCenter HA summary page is displayed with a list of prerequisites, ensure these are met along with the requirements above. Click Setup vCenter HA.

vCenter_HA_1

Select the vCenter HA network by clicking Browse. Scroll down the vCenter HA resource settings, review the network and resource settings of the active node of the vCenter Server. Scroll down to the passive node and click Edit. Follow the on-screen prompts to select a folder location, compute and storage resources. Select the management and HA networks for the passive node, review the settings once complete and click Finish. Follow the same steps for the witness node.

vCenter_HA_2

On the IP settings page enter the HA network settings for the active, passive, and witness nodes. Click Finish.

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The vCenter Server will now be cloned and the HA network settings applied, this can be monitored from the tasks pane. Once complete the vCenter HA state will show Healthy, and all nodes in the cluster will show Up.

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You can edit the status of vCenter HA at any time by going back into the vCenter HA menu and clicking Edit. You also have the option of removing the vCenter HA configuration or manually initiating a failover.

vCenter_HA_Edit

For more information on vCenter 6.7 High Availability see the vCenter Documentation Centre here.