vCenter 6 - DB upgrade

[virtualdive]

Hi All,

Planning to upgrade the vCenter from 5.5 to 6.0 in a small Development environment. Customer has a separate SQL 2012 server to hold the vCenter 6 DB. Below is what I have done,

1. Backup and restored the vCenter 5.5 SQL 2008 express DB to the new Full SQL 2012 server. Backup and restore was successful.

2. Created the x64 DSN using the native client 11 and tested the connectivity, which is perfectly working.

3. Followed the KB article: VMware KB: Migrating the vCenter Server database from SQL Express to full SQL Server

4. Detached and Attached the DB also.

Now, when I am installing the new vCenter 6.0 and connecting to the new SQL 2012 DB it is throwing below error, Not sure what is it pointing to?

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VMware vCenter Server

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A 5.x version of the vCenter Server database has been detected. You may only upgrade the 5.x database by upgrading the vCenter Server connected to that database.

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OK  

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Thanks,

[rcporto]

After moved the Express Instance to the Full SQL Server 2012, did you tested your vCenter 5.5 running from the database on the new location ?

[virtualdive]

Hi Richard,

No not done that yet, will do it today and see. But is this a required step on this error?

Thanks,

[rcporto]

Not required, but without this step you cannot be sure if the DB migration to the new location was really successfully. Because of this, I recommend you test everything with the old vCenter before try upgrade to the version 6.

[virtualdive]

Hi Rich,

Tried that and the vCenter 5.5 is connecting to the new DB perfectly fine. But not with vCenter 6.0 with same error, strange!

[brunofernandez1]

are you trying to make an upgrade of the database from another vcenter server or are you doing an in place upgrade?

[virtualdive]

Hi Bruno,

This is what has happened so far in bit more details,

1. Current vCenter 5.5 is on Win2k8 R2 with Express DB as local.

2. There is a SQL 2012 Full version already setup in the environment.

3. We want to upgrade vCenter 5.5 to 6.0 and keep the current DB as well (anyways 6.0 doesn't support express).

4. I shut down the vCenter service, backed up the local Express DB of 5.5 vCenter and restored it on the SQL 2012 Full.

5. Created another VM with Win2K12 R2 and tried to install vCenter 6.0 and point to the new DB, this is where the error comes in as given in the screenshot in the first post. System DSN is connecting and testing correctly.

I don't know why it is giving that error.

Thanks,

[brunofernandez1]

try to upgrade the current vcenter to 6.0 with w2k8 and with the 2012 sql server.

after upgrading, install a new vcenter with 6.0 and point it to the new db

[virtualdive]

Thanks Bruno,

Will try that, I have few other things also in mind that I will try over this weekend. Will update whatever comes out.

[admin · Accepted solution]

virtualdive wrote:

4. I shut down the vCenter service, backed up the local Express DB of 5.5 vCenter and restored it on the SQL 2012 Full.

5. Created another VM with Win2K12 R2 and tried to install vCenter 6.0 and point to the new DB, this is where the error comes in as given in the screenshot in the first post. System DSN is connecting and testing correctly.

As suggested before me, you need to first run the vCenter Server, after you've reconfigured the database to external one.

What's happening right now:

1. You run the installer. It doesn't detect a running vCenter Server on that VM and it assumes you're doing a fresh install.

2. You point to the DSN with 5.5 database and the installer lets you know that you cannot deploy a vCenter 6.0 with 5.5 database.

Regards,

- Ivo

[virtualdive]

Hi Ivo,

Thanks for the information. Making sense to me, will try this and see.

The DB I am using is RTM version, do you know if it is supported? I checked Inter-portability Matrix, RTM doesn't show in the list.

[admin]

It's fine. The upgrade would work, but I suggest to apply SP1 or SP2.

We've seen issues with RTM builds.

[virtualdive]

Hi All,

Writing after a while to update on this issue. The problem seemed to be the SQL RTM version. There were certain things to notice here,

1. Once you migrate the SQL Express to Full version, you need to connect the vCenter atleast once before upgrading to latest version.

2. The KB article 1028601 does not help at all. It is missing the information that, when you migrate the SQL Server elsewhere from local, the vCenter service vpxd dependency has also to be removed from SQL Express. Ultimately you have to re-install the vCenter to get all working.

3. Live Ivo said be careful of RTM versions.

For my solution, I simply moved the DB to 2012 R2 SP1 and all worked well.

Thank you,

[erikjohnsen]

Hi

I have a 5.5 database and I want to install 6.0 cleanly on a new VM, will the DB be upgraded as well from 5.5 to 6.0?

I am getting the same error as you in the precheck with "db.clobber:no", using SQL Server 2012 SP2 external DB.