Recently VMWare has announced vSphere 6.5 product suite GA (General availability). There are tones of new features included in new version of vSphere 6.5 suite, Here I will be testing one of the inbuilt new feature vSphere HTML5 web client first, Although for earlier version this was separate ova appliance provided and had to install it manually (https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vsphere-html5-web-client), In this chapter I will be just upgrading my existing vSphere 6.0 environment. Installation steps are almost as same as earlier version. Whenever you update vSphere suite, vCenter Server should be upgraded first then update manager, third upgrade Esxi server.
VSPHERE UPDATE MANAGER 6.5 UPGRADE AND VSPHERE WEB CLIENT PLUG-IN INTEGRATION
Before starting upgrade I strongly recommend backup vCenter SQL server data, if possible have snapshot for vCenter server. I will be using my same Windows vCenter 6.0 virtual machine vm to upgrade to latest 6.5 version, To start with I have already registered and downloaded required ISO files from https://my.vmware.com, I have attached ISO to VM CD/DVD drive. And launched setup installer from DVD drive, It will automatically detect existing vCenter version installed and will be guide upgrade. In my scenario I had installed embeded Platform Services Controller PSC with vCenter, Both the components will get upgraded, Press next.
Next is end user license agreement, Click on I accept the terms of the license agreement, click next.
Type the existing vCenter 6.0 Single Sign-On password, I am keeping all the defaults and if you are using service account type the Password for it., This is all old information I entered in earlier article while vCenter 6.0 Installation. The vCenter Single Sing-On credentials must be of a user with vCenter Single Sign-on administrative privileges to your existing vCenter single sign-on domain. The vCenter Server credentials must be of a user with administrative privileges to your vCenter server instance. If the default accounts and domain names were used, the [email protected] account would meet both requirements.
With the recent exciting news of the release of VMware vSphere 6.5 Update 1, there are many great reasons now to upgrade from vSphere 6.0.The first step that you will want to take after validating your hardware compatibility and interoperability matrices from VMware, is Upgrading VMware vSphere VCSA Appliance to 6.5 Update 1. The process to upgrade from VCSA 6.0 to VCSA 6.5 Update 1 is the. In this article let us learn how to Upgrade VMware vCenter VCSA appliance 6.0 to 6.5. Upgrading an existing vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 to 6.5 is also broken up into two stages. The first stage is deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance and the second stage is copying data from the 6.0 VCSA to the newly deployed 6.5 VCSA VMware upgrade.
After pressing I received 2 errors, I have documented them in another article . After clicking next it will launch and running pre-upgrade checks, This could take a few minutes.
Next shows configured ports earlier and cannot be changed, so make sure these ports are opened on firewall or internally. Port numbers 53, 88, 389, 636, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2020, 5480, 7080, 7081, 8200, 8201, 8300, 8301, 11711, 11712, 12721, must be available for deployment, Here we can change the destination directory for exporting data, During the upgrade, existing data will be exported to these directory, and them migrated to the 6.5.0 deployment. Data exported to these directory will not be cleaned up by the installer. Remove this directory and its contents after the upgrade completes.
Throughout the upgrade installer I have selected all the defaults. Join the VMware customer experience improvement program if you wish, Verify the ready to upgrade summary and confirm the setting below and click upgrade, During the upgrade, a new dialog box will pop up when the existing vCenter Server is being uninstalled. The dialog box will disappear automatically when the uninstall has completed.
Verify that you have backed up vCenter Server machine and the database server pointed by the 'vCenter database connection' DSN and start upgrade.
There are 5 steps performed by upgradation process, Sql database schema is also upgraded in the background.
1: Exporting data from existing vCenter Server (VMware vCenter Server Database data)
2: Missed this step
3: Removing existing product (VMware vCenter Server)
4: Installing components (all the required vmware services and softwares)
5: Importing data back into vCenter Server
1: Exporting data from existing vCenter Server (VMware vCenter Server Database data)
2: Missed this step
3: Removing existing product (VMware vCenter Server)
4: Installing components (all the required vmware services and softwares)
5: Importing data back into vCenter Server
Once installation is completed if you are using Auto deploy server update the dhcp settings. Update the TFTP settings with the new set of tramp files from the new Auto Deploy server. I am ignoring it as I am not using it.
At this stage upgrade from vCenter server 6.0 to VMware vCenter Server version 6.5.0 is completed successfully, After post upgrade data exported to c:programdatavmwarevCenterserverexport directory is not cleaned up by the installer. Verify that the upgraded vCenter server works correctly and remove the directory and its contents manually, Use the vSphere web client to manage vCenter Server. Log in with the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator account [email protected] account.
vSphere web client can be lauched by clicking the button.
Or launch vSphere web client in the any supported browser using url https://vcenterserverFQDN_IP., Now select your preferred method either Flash one vSphere web client, or HTML5 based vSphere Client with Partial functionality, Here I am choosing HTML 5 based vsphere client.
It asks for user name and password for first time use [email protected] user to login, Once login successful it shows cool vSphere HTML5 client. One thing to note as this has partial functionality, It looks as same as old vsphere c# client, I didn't find option to configure vsphere single sign-on.
Useful links
ADDING AND CONFIGURING VMWARE VSPHERE VCENTER SSO ACTIVE DIRECTORY AS LDAP SERVER
ADDING AND ASSIGNING VSPHERE LICENSES IN VCENTER SERVER AND ESXI
PART 1 : VCENTER SQL DATABASE AND ODBC DSN CREATION
PART 2 : VCENTER SERVER 6.0 INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS 2012 R2
PART 3.1 : VMWARE VSPHERE UPDATE MANAGER INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS 2012 R2
PART 3.2 : VMWARE VSPHERE UPDATE MANAGER PLUG-IN INSTALLATION ON VSPHERE CLIENT
ADDING AND CONFIGURING VMWARE VSPHERE VCENTER SSO ACTIVE DIRECTORY AS LDAP SERVER
ADDING AND ASSIGNING VSPHERE LICENSES IN VCENTER SERVER AND ESXI
PART 1 : VCENTER SQL DATABASE AND ODBC DSN CREATION
PART 2 : VCENTER SERVER 6.0 INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS 2012 R2
PART 3.1 : VMWARE VSPHERE UPDATE MANAGER INSTALLATION ON WINDOWS 2012 R2
PART 3.2 : VMWARE VSPHERE UPDATE MANAGER PLUG-IN INSTALLATION ON VSPHERE CLIENT
I know that vSphere 6.5 is out for some time now, but I did not got to upgrading my own homelab up until last week. So last week I started the upgrade and I ran into two situations in wich I had to do a little bit of troubleshooting. On top of that I realized that this site did not have a how to upgrade vCenter server appliance (VCSA) just yet, so why not add one now ;)
Quick note: My vCenter installation allready was in the appliance format, therefor this article will only describe upgrading the appliance variant.
Preperation
While you download the latest vCenter server appliance ISO from the VMware site you should check the following:
- As with all upgrades you should first make sure that you have a proper backup of your vCenter server appliance
- Further more make sure that integrated applications and / or services are compatible with version 6.5 (check the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices)
- Make sure you have a system that you can use the ISO on. In my case I used a virtual machine with Windows installed so I could use the GUI upgrade
- Have a free IP address available in the same subnet as the current vCenter server appliance
Stage 1
The upgrade is devided into two stages. The first is to build the new VCSA besides the current appliance. This new VCSA will run on a temporary IP addresss until the entire upgrade is done. And in case something goes wrong during this part no harm is done. Just cancel the upgrade and delete the newly created appliance and start over again.
To start the GUI installation go to the mounted ISO and start the installer.exe in the <DriveLetter>:vcsa-ui-installerwin32 directory and follow these steps:
- Choose for Upgrade
- Accept the EULA
- Now in this next step I first got a error and later found out I made a mistake:
- Once you entered all the information and click next the installer will try to reach the vCenter. For me this resulted in the error “A problem occured while getting data from the scource vCenter Server”. And the log showed me “error: sourcePrecheck: error in getting source Info: ServerFaultCode: A general system error occurred: vix error codes = (1, 4294967294)”. After some searching I found that this means the VCSA root password needs resetting. Looking at the VSCA admin page it indeed stated that my password was expired. After resetting the error was gone in the installer.
- As you can see in the screenshot I entered all the details, but during stage two of the upgrade I got an error on the bottom part. The error stated that the entity on which my vCenter appliance was running is the appliance itself. Thinking this through it makes sence as it kind of creates a chicken and egg situation. Now I kind of hoped that I could still adjust this at that stage, but you cant. So I deleted the new appliance and started over again but now I entered the vSphere host on which the VCSA is running. Make sure DRS is not set to “Fully Automated”, would be a shame if the appliance whould move from the entered vSphere host during the installation.
- If you are using a self-signed certificate then you will be asked if it is trusted, click Yes to continue
- The next few steps will have you enter the target location of the new appliance including vCenter / Vsphere host, VM folder and compute resource
- Then you will need to give the new VCSA a virtual machine name and enter a root password
- You will need to select the depployment size for the new appliance. And I think VMware did a great job by adding a sizing table to help accommodate the choise
- Select the datastore on which to deploy the VCSA
- And finally enter the network settings. This is where you enter the temporary IP address.
The installer will now start and create a new virtual machine. Once this deployment is done you can either use the installer to continue with stage 2. Or you can use a browser and navigate to https://<temporary ip address>:5480/ .
Stage 2
I am note sure anymore why, but I ended up running stage two from the browser. When you open the site it will state that vCenter server 6.5 has been installed succesfully, but still needs additional steps.
- Select the upgrade option in the menu
- You are asked to enter the srouce VCSA and managemend entity again. This time I entered the vSphere host the first time ;)
- Then you get to choose what kind of data you want to migrate. You will always have the configuration offcourse, but you also have the option to save historical data.
- And then at the final step you need to confirm that you made a backup of the source VCSA. If you don’t confirm that you have the upgrade proces won’t continue.
As a final warning you will be notified that the source VSCA will be shutdown after the network configuration has been done. By clicking OK the upgrade will kickoff with the data migration. Once finished you can reach your new VCSA on this same ip address that once belonged to the old VCSA.
The old VCSA will still be in the vCenter inventory but with it’s power turned off. Maybe to state the obvious but it is not reccomended to start this appliance again. If you do decide to do so again make sure it is not connected to the network.