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JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

Upgrade to vCenter 5.5 with Heartbeat

Hello all,

i am just reading some paper about upgrading to the new vCenter Version 5.5 with vcenter Heartbeat.

In the new heartbeat Installation and upgrade paper on page 53 i read this.

"Before attempting to upgrade from vCenter Server 5.0 or vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.5 you must

install the VMware vSphere Single Sign-On (SSO) 5.5 component separately on a different machine (not on

the Primary or Secondary node) and then protect SSO on the separate machine with vCenter Server Heartbeat"

I could not belive it! Is that true that i need a seperate machine for my sso Installation? For what? We seperate the Installation in one Hardware and one VM Machine. I could not buy a new machine only for my SSO Installation.

Is it true or could i install all of the vCenter components on one machine?

Thanks

Frank

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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

If you do a fresh install, yes, you can install all the components on one machine.

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JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

And if i wan´t to do an upgrade i have to install it on a new machine??

That could not be the truth. So i only have the option to do a fresh vCenter Installation?

Lost all of my data? We are also using vCenter Operations Manager and other products.

Frank

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

There is a fix coming in an express patch to do an upgrade with vCenter Server and SSO coexisting. The issue is described in release notes and a workaround provided. I understand your frustrations, and the SSO / Heartbeat teams are working towards a fix ASAP.

Donna (vCenter Heartbeat PM)

JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

Hi Donna,

thanks for your Information. Yes, your right, at the moment, i am frustated about the new VMware products and updates. Bevor vSphere 5.1 all updates are running smoothly.

The beginning of the SSO pain. No harm meant!!

Do you know where to look for? To see when the patch will be released?

Thanks a second time 😉

Frank

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Frank,

Let me see where we stand on validation of the fix. There are two workarounds right now when SSO is installed on the same server as vCenter..

(1) uninstall Heartbeat before upgrading which is not a good workaround for customers, and (2) run a small script to handle the issue. 

Frank, VMware is committed to improving the quality of vCenter and mitigating customers frustrations.  I appreciate your candidness.

Donna

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JimKnopf99
Commander
Commander

Hello Donna,

then, i will wait until an update is released. Thanks for your help !!

Frank

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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi Frank,

You can find a workaround for upgrading SSO from 5.1 to 5.5 when protected by vCSHB: VMware KB: Upgrading Single Sign-On 5.1 to 5.5 when vCenter Server Heartbeat is installed

Thanks,

Dani

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bendter
Contributor
Contributor

Will there be any way to upgrade vCenter from 5.0 to 5.5 with vCenter Heartbeat and install SSO on the same server as vCenter?  Or will that require the Heartbeat software to be uninstalled first?

Thanks,

Bill

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

bendter wrote:

Will there be any way to upgrade vCenter from 5.0 to 5.5 with vCenter Heartbeat and install SSO on the same server as vCenter?  Or will that require the Heartbeat software to be uninstalled first?

Thanks,

Bill

Bill that is supported today. You just need to upgrade Heartbeat to 6.6 first. You can see that Heartbeat 6.6 is compatible with both 5.0 and 5.5 here: VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes

2013-10-30_20-34-25.png

Once you have Heartbeat upgraded then make your secondary server active and install SSO 5.5, the Web Client, Inventory Service, upgrade vCenter and lastly any components such as VUM you may have installed. As with previous vCenter upgrades with Heartbeat (and all vCenter upgrades period) make sure you take backups of your vCenter and VUM (if you're using it) Databases as you'll need to restore those when you upgrade your primary server. The complete upgrade instructions can be found in the install guide for Heartbeat 6.6 located at vCenter Server Heartbeat Documentation. The line that states that during an upgrade you must install SSO on a different server only pertains to upgrading SSO 5.1 and has since been addressed. The known issues of Heartbeat 6.6 calls this out as a 5.1 issue only https://www.vmware.com/support/heartbeat/doc/vcenter-server-heartbeat-66-release-notes.html#knowniss...

Let us know if you have any more questions and watch the vSphere blog for more information soon on upgrading vCenter and vCenter Heartbeat.

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi Bill,

If you are upgrading from 5.0 to 5.5 and the server is protected by vCSHB, you will have to install SSO on a SEPARATE machine, as 5.0 does not have SSO and upgrading would mean installing a protected application after vCSHB..

vCSHB 6.6 supports vCenter 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5. If you want SSO and vCenter to be on the same server protected be vCSHB you have to install them BEFORE vCSHB.

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

dmihaescu wrote:

Hi Bill,

If you are upgrading from 5.0 to 5.5 and the server is protected by vCSHB, you will have to install SSO on a SEPARATE machine, as 5.0 does not have SSO and upgrading would mean installing a protected application after vCSHB..

vCSHB 6.6 supports vCenter 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5. If you want SSO and vCenter to be on the same server protected be vCSHB you have to install them BEFORE vCSHB.

It is supported. There is a task that runs called protected service discovery that will find & add all the new SSO 5.5 services.

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

hi mabrown76,

the protected service discovery task does exactly what it says, discovers if protected services are installed and starts monitoring them in order to restart them or perform an automatic failover in case the services fail.

The install guide for 6.6 specifies the following in the upgrading section:

page 53:

Prerequisites

Before attempting to upgrade from vCenter Server 5.0 or vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.5 you must install the VMware vSphere Single Sign-On (SSO) 5.5 component separately on a different machine (not on the Primary or Secondary node) and then protect SSO on the separate machine with vCenter Server Heartbeat.

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

dmihaescu wrote:

Prerequisites

Before attempting to upgrade from vCenter Server 5.0 or vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.5 you must install the VMware vSphere Single Sign-On (SSO) 5.5 component separately on a different machine (not on the Primary or Secondary node) and then protect SSO on the separate machine with vCenter Server Heartbeat.

Like I mentioned above that should only say 5.1 and that issue was also fixed so that it is not an issue with 5.1 either. The protected service discovery will discover new vCenter related services and add them as protected services. You'll see this in an upcoming video on vmware.com and our iPad app soon.

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

hi Mike,

Like I said above, vCSHB 6.6 protects the SSO version that was released in vCenter 5.5. The install guide correctly says 5.0 and 5.1

The problem with SSO2 is that it is a new application with new services that do not exist in 5.0 and 5.1. If you upgrade on one server vCSHB will protect the services on that server (by protection I mean restart the service or the entire application) but it will not install them on the passive, so the passive server will not have these services and you will not be able to failover.

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Right, during the upgrade you will install/upgrade 5.5, including SSO, on both nodes.

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

That would work only if you use the workaround and the utility from the following KB article:

VMware KB: Upgrading Single Sign-On 5.1 to 5.5 when vCenter Server Heartbeat is installed

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

dmihaescu wrote:

That would work only if you use the workaround and the utility from the following KB article:

VMware KB: Upgrading Single Sign-On 5.1 to 5.5 when vCenter Server Heartbeat is installed

For 5.1 that is correct, for 5.0 there is no SSO so that KB isn't relevant to the question I was answering.

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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dmihaescu
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Yes, the KB says 5.1, but I think it also applies to 5.0.

Just installing SSO2  after HB as you mentioned will not work because of the multi-id way vCSHB works.

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mabrown76
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

dmihaescu wrote:

Yes, the KB says 5.1, but I think it also applies to 5.0.

Just installing SSO2  after HB as you mentioned will not work because of the multi-id way vCSHB works.

It works just fine. vCenter availability is one of my areas I cover in Technical Marketing so it's my job to know what works and what doesn't.

Look at it this way, SSO 5.5 is completely different from 5.1 just looking at it from a service and data protection standpoint we add more services and more data locations and Heartbeat protects those just fine during an upgrade from 5.1, the tool in the KB is to correct a logging issue, if you run it you'll see it's just setting up Log4j, so given that upgrading 5.0 or even 4.x would work in the same manner and after both nodes were upgraded SSO 5.5 would be installed on both and being protected by Heartbeat.

If you don't want to take my word for it, test it in a lab, you're in GSS and have access to internal labs to test this out on so I encourage you to do so.

--

Thanks,

Mike Brown, VCDX

Sr. Technical Marketing Manager - vCloud Suite

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere

http://www.vcdx71.com

--
Mike Brown, VCDX² (DCV & NV)
Senior Staff Architect
@vcdx71
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