Disassociate host from vCenter Server...

[imgs]

Hello,

I have a new customer with two VMware ESXi 6 hosts which are/were managed by vCenter. Nobody knows the password to login to vCenter but we can login to the two hosts.

There's an option to 'Disassociate host from vCenter Server...' on the two hosts in vSphere Client. If I use this option and then delete the vCenter VM, can I install a fresh vCenter VM and connect the two ESXi hosts to it?

I'm no VMware expert and don't want to mess up the hosts.

Thanks in advance.

[msripada]

If you do not know the password to login to vcenter.. are you referring to login to the vcenter windows login or appliance login? or is it a login to account to connect to the client?

You can reset the sso account using the below KB

VMware Knowledge Base

Thanks,

MS

[affy1392]

Hi,

Yes, you can but before decomm the vCenter VM better to check the PSC administrator password if you have then you can use it login if your vCenter not integrated with AD, If your VC integrated then you can use to login using your AD account.

If no luck on above then you may reinstall the the VC again keep the track of credential on the shared secure portal where you and other resources can access in such cases.

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

yes, you can basically do this. You could even add the hosts to a new vCenter Server without disassociating them from the old vCenter Server.

Anyway, without knowing which features are in use, it's hard to give you an advice.

I would likely try to reset the password(s) in such a case, rather than reinstalling? Did you already try to reset the password(s)?

Which vCenter Version is installed? Is it the Windows vCenter Server, or the Virtual Appliance?

André

[imgs]

Hello All,

Thanks for your responses...which have highlighted what I don't know about this setup!

Here's what I know:

Host 1:

ESXi 6.0.0, 2494585

I can access this host with the vSphere client but get a message that it's being managed by a vCenter Server with IP addess...

In the Inventory is a VMware vCenter Operations Manager with an Analytics VM and UI VM (both not running)

There is also a VMware vRealize Orchestrator Appliance (not running)

This is the original host in the setup (if that makes any difference)

Host 2:

ESXi 6.0.0, 2494585

I can access this host with the vSphere client but get a message that it's being managed by a vCenter Server with IP addess...

In the inventory there is a VM called vcenter, Windows Server 2012, running and I can log into it. This VM logs in with a user name and password from the old domain (see background below).

Background:

The company had a failure of their single physical Windows DC. Two new physical DCs were installed and a new domain with a different name created. All of the VMs on the two hosts have been made members of the new domain.

So I login to the VM called vcenter, open a browser window and point it to the vcenter's server IP address....this shows the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On prompt. None of the user name and password combinations which we know let us in. I haven't tried with the Use Windows session authentication because it that was previously used, that old domain is now gone.

So.......given the above, could you advise on a way forward?

Many thanks,

David

[golddiggie]

If it was me, I'd simply deploy a new vCSA (6.5u1 or u2 depending on your plans for going to 6.7 or newer). One of the advantages being you won't need the Windows VM for VUM with 6.5 (it's in the vCSA from that point forward). I would also deploy the relevant version of Operations Manager and Orchestrator. Yes, this means you'll have work to do, but at least things will be clean.

Be absolutely sure you record the SSO account information and make sure it's kept someplace where it will be secure AND backed up so that you don't have to worry about this happening again later.

Be sure you do the pre-work for the domain entries (DNS as well as any accounts).

Since they created a new domain with a different name, is it safe to assume this is a fairly small company/organization (user/system count)?? Otherwise it could take a while to get things setup again.

Also, I've not heard of places, even large organizations, going with physical DC's for a long time. Hell, back around 2006/7 the company I worked at migrated from physical domain controllers to virtual machines doing that function. It actually saved them a good amount of work due to not having to worry about hardware failures anymore. IIRC, they still had a pair of DC's running, but since they were VMs, they could bounce between host servers as needed.

I didn't go into getting the hosts into the new vCenter, since it's already been covered. IME, it's actually an easy step. Simply add the hosts to the new vCSA and don't worry about it. Since you don't have any plans to resurrect the old, delete them once you have the working setup.

[imgs]

Thanks for the extra info!

So I went ahead and took a breath before disassociating both hosts from vCenter...nothing fell over!

So I'm left with...

Host 1

VMware vCenter Operations Manager

Analytics VM - powered off

UI VM - powered off

Host 2

vcenter - a running Windows 2012 Server R2 VM running vCenter I presume

Can I just delete these VMs from the host?

Also a side question, we have V6....can we install 6.5 without parting with more money or is that considered a new version?

Thanks for all your help.

[Lalegre]

If you will not use those machines anymore and deploy a new brand vcenter and operations, yes you can delete them.

Also the license for vSphere 6 covers 6.0, 6.5 and 6.7. You can use the same license.