June 10 2019

Step by Step: Upgrade vCenter VCSA 6.0 (or 6.5) to 6.7

Amira Armond Computers 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, best, download, easy, how, step, upgrade, vcenter, vcsa, vmware 32

These screenshots show the entire process to upgrade vCenter from 6.0 to 6.7 using a Windows 10 desktop as my administrative workstation. The same steps work for vCenter 6.5 to 6.7.

Is your existing vCenter server running on Windows? This article is primarily about upgrading vCenter appliances (linux-based). If you have a Windows vCenter server, check the comments for instructions from Greg Curry. Thanks Greg!

Preparing for the vCenter appliance upgrade

First, create a snapshot for your existing vCenter server. If you have disk space available, make sure to Quiesce memory.

Log on to vmware.com and navigate to the Downloads section. Pick vCenter Server from the list. (It does not matter if you choose Essentials, Standard, etc, they are all the same).

Verify the version you want to use (it will default to the latest one), and click Download for VMware vCenter Server Appliance, file type = iso. Now wait for a bit for it to download.

Navigate to your downloads folder when the download completes. In Windows 10, you can double-click the file to mount it to a virtual DVD drive. For non Windows workstations, use an .iso viewer or burn the image to a CD then open it on the CD.

Navigate to the contents of your .iso file. On Windows 10, use Windows Explorer and look for the files inside your DVD drive. Then expand vcsa-ui-installer to open that folder.

Expand the folder that matches your computer (Windows 7, 8, and 10, pick win32)

(Windows 7, 8, 10) Run the installer.exe file to start the upgrade wizard.

Appliance Upgrade Stage 1

Options display. For this scenario, pick Upgrade (to upgrade an existing vCenter appliance from 6.0 or 6.5 to 6.7)

Agreement displays. You need to accept it to proceed.

Enter the DNS name for your existing vCenter server. You can look this up in the address bar when you open vCenter to manage your VMware environment. Port 443 is appropriate for almost everyone, unless the IT department has customized this. When you Connect to Source, the rest of the window will display.

Most environments will use administrator@vsphere.local for the SSO User name. SSO password is the password for the user name you entered above (administrator@vsphere.local). Appliance (OS) root password means the root password for your vCenter appliance website (https://vcenter01.company.com:**5480**). See next step to identify which ESXi host is managing your appliance.

——————

Additional info from Todd who provided this quote in the comments (Thanks Todd!)

I ran into one minor issue during the “Upgrade Stage 1: Deploy Appliance” phase. Operation would halt with “Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials.” I know they’re good as I can login to VCSA, VAMI, MOB, ESXi using them.

I changed all of the passwords to numbers and letters only with a single known good special character tacked on at the end. Et Voila! Problem solved. The rest of the upgrade proceeds without errors.

Passwords like these will not work with this utility:

Tv5$8FG#m*Djn
7xjg8sP%C#usXH8H
X8xk$vR^q9ccw@WxR

———————–

In the VMware hosts & clusters view, if you select your existing vCenter server and go to the Summary tab, you can see the address of the ESXi host.

You will get prompted to review the certificate. Just click Yes.

Now enter the ESXi server that will host your upgraded vCenter server. Yes, we are making a new vCenter server with this procedure. The old vCenter will be powered off if the upgrade succeeds. Make sure you pick a host that has plenty of RAM and disk (at least 12 GB RAM, at least 500 GB disk) available.

This is where you set the name and password for your new vCenter. The name will be displayed in VMware Hosts & Clusters. This is not the DNS name or IP address for your new vCenter. Your new vCenter will inherit the existing DNS name and IP address since we are doing an upgrade.

Almost all medium and small businesses use Tiny for deployment size and Large for storage size. If you have 10 or less ESXi servers, use Tiny.

Pick the datastore that will host your new vCenter server. Remember that by default it will use 850 GB thick provisioned for a Tiny deployment.

Optional: Check the “Enable Thin Disk Mode” so that your vCenter server uses less disk space (about 80 GB). This is mildly dangerous because the usage can grow over time and cause a datastore to fill up (crashing all VMs on the datastore), but for most small environments it doesn’t grow more than a few GB per year and 850 GB is WAY more than you need.

These are the network settings that your new vCenter server will use. Make sure to pick a Network that both your existing vCenter and the new vCenter can communicate on, with their IP addresses. The new vCenter will use the Temporary IP address for a few minutes during the upgrade process, then it will switch to the existing IP address of your vCenter server. Make sure no other devices are using the Temporary IP address.

Ready to complete displays. When you click Finish, the deployment will start.

Even across WAN links, this process takes less than an hour. Make sure that your workstation doesn’t disconnect from the work network during this process. (If it does disconnect, no problem, just re-start from the beginning.)

Errors that can occur during stage 1

If you used the wrong password for the old vCenter, the source host, or the destination host, you may get an error at this point.

If you are on an unstable VPN link, you may get an error. Try running the upgrade from a workstation or server on the LAN.

If you used DNS instead of IP addresses, try changing to IP addresses.

Temporary IP error: The upgrade will attempt to ping the IP address you chose for the temporary vCenter IP address. If it pings, the upgrade will fail. Make sure nothing is using that IP.

For information about cleaning up failed upgrade steps, see troubleshooting at the bottom of the article.

Stage 2 Upgrade VCSA

Phase 1 shows complete. The new vCenter virtual machine is deployed, but not configured. Beginning Phase 2 of the upgrade.

Introduction for Stage 2 displays. Click Next.

It is normal to get several warnings. Errors are bad, and will cause your upgrade to fail. Warnings are not bad. Read them and take action if appropriate.

Most small and medium businesses don’t have that much data in their vCenter. In this example, there is only 3.18 GB of data to transfer. Since there is not a big difference between the sizes of each choice, I choose to move over everything. It is good to retain historical data when possible.

Most businesses are fine to join the CEIP. If you are working on a secure network, then don’t check it.

Ready to complete displays. You will need to check that you have backed up the source vCenter server (you did, right?). Ways to perform backups: 1) Veeam. 2) Create that snapshot at the beginning of this post. 3) Use the appliance website (https://vcenter.company.com:5480) and click the Backup button (you will need a web server or SCP host to do this). The reality is that this upgrade process doesn’t delete your original server. At the worst, it powers it off. There is very little risk of harming your original vCenter.

Phase 2 proceeds. It should finish within about 30 minutes.

Possible errors during phase 2

NTP error: Make sure your source VCSA has good NTP settings which are the same as the host you are using for source and destination. See this VMware article about configuring NTP. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/57146 If you don’t have an internal time server, then the recommended option is to point to internet NTP servers: 0.vmware.pool.ntp.org ; 1.vmware.pool.ntp.org ; 2.vmware.pool.ntp.org

Success!!

At this point, your upgrade should be successful. When the upgrade wizard completes, your old vCenter will be powered off and your new vCenter (running 6.7) will be powered on.

You may want to rename your old vCenter to something like “old_vCenter01”.

Test your ability to log onto the vCenter appliance (https://vcenter01.company.com:5480)

Test your ability to manage your virtual machines (https://vcenter01.company.com/vsphere-client)

Make sure to check your backup jobs. They should switch to using the new vCenter automatically, but double-check.

Once you are comfortable with the new vCenter and you have at least one good backup of it, you can delete your old one.

Remember that if the new vCenter doesn’t work, you can revert your changes simply by powering it off and powering the new vCenter on. You may need to log into individual hosts (https://host_ip_address) to do this if your vCenter isn’t working.

Troubleshooting:

Manually verify every password for each device (your existing vCenter administrator@vsphere.local, your existing vCenter root, the source ESXi host root, the destination ESXi host root). It is common for the vCenter root to be expired. See my other blog for easy steps to fix an expired vCenter root password.

Orphaned vCenter attempts: If your deployment fails, the new vCenter may display as orphaned. There is no impact at this time, because you will continue using your existing vCenter. I’ve heard that using VMware Workstation to connect to your vCenter will allow removal. There is a blog that describes various methods for dealing with orphaned VMs: https://www.altaro.com/vmware/how-to-deal-with-orphaned-virtual-machines/ For a more authoritative source, see VMware KB article for removal steps: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003742#vmdeleted

Upgrade failed with “Failed to send http datainstaller…” The fix seems to be not using DNS for anything. Change all your server names to IP addresses! Reference https://virtuallyinclined.com/2018/07/30/vsphere-6-7-vcsa-upgrade-issues/

Selfish plug time (sorry!)

Thanks for reading this article! I hope it helps you! If you have tips or feedback, please comment or send me an email so that others can benefit.

I am a consultant in the Maryland/DC area in the USA. My specialties are Windows migrations (to 2016 and to Office 365 / Azure), VMware migrations, Netapp and SAN, and high availability / disaster recovery planning. If you would like help with your complex project, or would like a architectural review to improve your availability, please reach out! More information and contact can be found on the About page. – Amira Armond

May 20 2019

How to fix or change vCenter root password expired 6.5 and 6.7

Amira Armond Computers 6.5, 6.7, change, expired, fix, password, root, vcenter, vcsa 9

Symptoms

Your vCenter 6.5 or 6.7 server automatically expired your root password
You left the default setting to expire the root password in your vCenter Appliance
When you try to log on to the management website :5480 with root, it says the password is expired.
You know what the root password is.

How to fix:

Open console to your VCSA by logging on to the vSphere ESXi server that is hosting it
Press F2 to configure your vCenter appliance
When prompted, type in your root password (it should work, even if expired)
Note: Even though there is an option here to change your root password, it doesn’t seem to work when root is expired.
Go to troubleshooting options and enable BASH and enable SSH
Connect to your VCSA using SSH – logging on with root and your expired password will work.
Select BASH shell from the menu
type “passwd” and press Enter
If you want to keep your current root password, just enter it twice here.
If you want to use a new root password, enter it twice here.
Verify it works by opening the management website :5480 to your vCenter server and logging on.

Prevent the root password from expiring again

To prevent the root password from expiring again, log onto vCenter management website ( :5480), go to Administration menu, and change the password settings here.
If you use a long, complex password, there is no reason to automatically expire it. Long and complex means 14+ characters!

Selfish plug time (sorry!)

Thanks for reading this article! I hope it helps you! If you have tips or feedback, please comment or send me an email so that others can benefit.

January 21 2019

How to install vCenter 6.7 (and 6.0 and 6.5) with no DNS, only IP address

Amira Armond Best rated posts, Computers 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 6.x, deploy, dns, how, install, ip, iso, long, no, only, slow, vcenter, vcsa, windows 11

Many websites will say that vCenter 6x requires DNS lookup, but these steps and screenshots prove that you can install a new vCenter 6.7 with only an IP address and no DNS.

Start vCenter install from .iso file using Windows 10

how to install new vcenter 6_7 which file — 1. Download the install .iso file for your vCenter (available from the downloads area of vmware.com. On a Windows PC (I am using Windows 10), double-click the .iso file to mount it. It will show up in a virtual DVD drive.

how to install new vcenter 6_7 windows 10 — 2. Open your virtual DVD drive and expand the vcsa-ui-installer folder.

how to install new vcenter 6_7 windows 10 win32 — 3. Expand the win32 folder (for a Windows PC). If you are using Linux or Mac as your desktop, select the appropriate folder.

start vcenter install from iso vcsa — 4. Run the installer.exe file as administrator (on Windows). This will start the program that allows you to deploy, upgrade, or migrate vCenters.

vCenter install stage 1

start vcenter install from iso vcsa wizard starts — 5. Initial options display. In our case, we are installing a brand new vCenter with no DNS, only IP address. So pick Install.

6. Go through the introduction and end use license agreement. For the deployment type, select Embedded Platform Services Controller (this is normally the correct choice unless you have a very large, complex environment)

7. Normally you will be installing a new vCenter directly onto an ESXi host. Put the IP address of your ESXi host into the “ESXi host or vCenter Server name”. Leave the port 443, enter the correct root account and password for that ESXi host.

8. Configure options for “set up appliance VM” — this gives the name for the VM on your host (and will affect naming of the datastore folders). Set the root password for the vCenter appliance here. Select deployment size – for most situations, the default of Tiny is fine unless you have more than 10 hosts. Select datastore – pick the datastore to create the VM into.

10. Confirm your settings and start deployment. For me, I was able to complete Stage 1 in about 15 minutes, despite using a slow (100mbps) network.

vCenter installation stage 2

11. Stage 2 starts. If you have an NTP server, set it here, otherwise make sure your ESXi host has correct time and use it.

12. Most deployments create a new SSO domain.

stage 2 step 3 sso domain using vsphere_local — 13. Enter “vsphere.local” into SSO domain name, enter a password for administrator. Your logon username will be administrator@vsphere.local with the password you set.

14. Select whether you want to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (secure facilities say no). Then review your settings and Finish to start configuration.

15. How long does it take to complete Stage 2, Appliance setup? For me, it took 10 minutes. If it takes more than 45 minutes, your deployment is probably failing.

stage 2 complete you have setup this appliance — 16. Stage 2 completes. Note that the link assumes you are using DNS. It won’t work unless you have updated your HOSTS or put an entry into your DNS server. Since we are avoiding DNS, lets just say it won’t work.

Now to connect to your new vCenter VCSA without DNS..

connect vcenter 6 7 chrome after install ip address photon-machine error dns — 17. As you can see, if you don’t have DNS and just click the link, the page won’t open.

connect vcenter 6 7 chrome after install ip address — 18. Change the URL to the IP address of the vCenter server. Now the page displays.

connect vcenter 6 7 chrome after install ip address vsphere-client — 19. If you follow the “Launch vSphere client HTML5” link, or simply enter the URL **https://vCenter_IP/vsphere-client** , the vCenter logon page will display.

connect vcenter 6 7 chrome after install ip address vsphere-client administrator@vsphere_local — 20. Enter administrator@vsphere.local and the password you set in Step 13. Make sure you have Flash enabled on your browser.

connect vcenter 6 7 chrome after install ip address vsphere client b — 21. The vCenter page will open successfully with no DNS.

22. How to access the VCSA appliance to perform management functions? Use the URL https://vCenter_IP:5480 and log on with root and the password you set in Step 8.

log on successful to vcsa 5480 root vcenter appliance manage — 23. Here is the management website for the VCSA

Selfish plug time (sorry!)

Thanks for reading this article! I hope it helps you! If you have tips or feedback, please comment or send me an email so that others can benefit. I am a consultant in the Maryland/DC area in the USA. My specialties are Windows migrations (to 2016 and to Office 365 / Azure), VMware migrations, Netapp and SAN, and high availability / disaster recovery planning. If you would like help with your complex project, or would like a architectural review to improve your availability, please reach out! More information and contact can be found on the About page. – Amira Armond