Windows vCenter 6.5u3 (with ELM) upgrade to VCSA 7.0u3

[angtl91]

Hi, currently we have 2 sites with below setup:

Production: Windows vCenter 6.5u3 with external PSC

DR: Windows vCenter 6.5u3 with external PSC

Enhanced Linked Mode enabled on both PSC (Prod & DR) .

Our plan is to upgrade/migrate both Windows vCenter to VCSA 7.0 with embedded PSC.

When we trying to migrate the first vCenter to VCSA 7.0, we select "This is the first vCenter Server in the topology that I want to converge", everything looks good.

For the second vCenter, we got an error "The replication partner provided is not part of the topology. Please provide the PNID of partner vCenter Server" when we selected "This is a subsequent vCenter Server" with the IP address of the first upgraded VCSA.

This is the current replication topology:

VCSA7 -> Prod PSC

Prod PSC -> DR PSC and VCSA7

DR PSC -> Prod PSC

Kindly find attached screenshot for more info.

Should I choose "First vcenter" options for this second vcenter as well?  Do I need to add/change the replication partner? Please advise.

[virtsysadmin]

Check what is the current topology and replication status

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2127057

seems the 2nd PSC still talking to OLD PSC? Because you need to keep the consistency across the replication partners.

[angtl91]

Does it means I need to decommission the old Production PSC first before I can upgrade the DR vCenter/PSC to VCSA?

[RoscoTyler]

Hello,

Did this get resolved in your environment? I've got the same topology and issue (although with a 6.7 Windows environment).

The documentation doesn't seem all that clear on when (and even how) to effectively remove old PSCs in a multi-site SSO domain environment. 

Unclear if the PSC should be powered on or off when the cmsso-util command is run. Seems to fail either way.

cmsso-util unregister --node-pnid testvc6701.mydomain.local --username administrator@vsphere.local

So used this command during some testing but still no joy migrating the 2nd vCenter.

/usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/bin/vdcleavefed -h testvc67psc01.mydomain.local -u administrator

Any guidance would be most appreciated!

Cheers,

Ross

[muakhtar]

In these scenarios generally, an issue comes where the pnid of the vCenter Server is different from the name of the vcenter due to which the Upgrade operation is not moving further. You can ssh to the Partner vCenter server and type the below command: root@MHDES-VC2P [ ~ ]# /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-pnid --server-name localhost ABCD-VC2P.i.abcd.com Copy and Paste the name from the output of the above command and it should let you move further with the Upgrade Operation.

[RoscoTyler]

Thanks for the reply muakhtar.

I gave that a go and the output of that command was the name I'd been using for the partner vCenter so still getting the same error. I'll raise a case with VMware and post back here what solution (hopefully) we get to.

[RoscoTyler]

Hi Kimbrefoster. Yes, that's the problem. I'm getting the error during the migration to 7.0 VCSA. I've opened a case with VMware so we'll see where that leads.

[ajesha]

 I had the similar issue. when i closed the installer and tried with vami upgrade option (https://tempIP of the VC:5480). it worked.

what I mean is stage-2 of the upgrade process.

[maksym007]

If I were you, I would lose a bit of time first to update from Windows to a standard appliance in version 6.7. Update 3 and only after that to version 7. Still, I will sleep like a baby without worries, hehehe

[ajesha]

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[RoscoTyler]

Thanks Munib. You were the closest to providing the right answer and if I had followed your advice to the letter it would have worked. The problem turned out to be, would you believe, a requirement for the server name to be entered in taking into account the case sensitive format of the output from the vmafd-cli get-pnid command. I had my migration server running in a vsphere remote console so I could not copy and paste but, for example, server1.mydomain.local was failing and I had to enter server1.MyDomain.local.

After that it worked like a dream!