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dbutch1976
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

ESXi host migration to new vCenter when using distributed vSwitches

Hello,

We have a large amount of legacy hardware which cannot be upgraded past ESXi 5.5 and is preventing us from upgrading to vCenter 7. To address this issue, we have created a new vCenter (LegacyVC1) to and am in the process of preparing LegacyVC1 to accomodate all of the ESXi 5.5 hosts, all of which are running production workloads and are using distributed vSwitches.

I have used the export function to export the distributed vSwitches and I have imported them into LegacyVC1. What is the correct way to smoothly move the ESXi 5.5 hosts from their existing vCenters and place them in LegacyVC1? I have done some tests and if I move a host I get the message:

The vSphere Distributed Switch corresponding to the proxy switches 50 0e 64 f1 91 06 49 15-07 40 d3 03 69 cb 77 ff on the host does not exist in vCenter Server or does not contain this host.

On the imported vswitch on LegacyVC1 I am unable to add the ESXi 5.5 host to the vswitch, or at least I don't see how to do it. I'm sure there must be a standard process for doing what I'm trying to accomplish, could someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

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Gabrie1
Commander
Commander

Hi,

I was confused about what migration you are planning, but after reading a few times, I think I get what you're trying to do. You currently have vCenter with a mix of old and new hardware. You want to move the old hardware running 5.5 to the new LegacyVC1 and leave the newer hardware in the current vCenter and then upgrade that vCenter. Correct?

I don't think you can migrate the hosts between vCenters and keep them registered to those dvSwitches, even though the dvSwitch is also available in the LegacyVC1. They way I've migrated in a similar scenario where I had to move to a new vCenter, I created a few powershell scripts to do the following:

- assuming you have two uplinks (or more) under the dvSwitch and each host has at least two physical nics.
- remove one physical nic from the dvSwitch
- create a standard vSwitch on the host and connect that physical nic you just removed
- create standard portgroups for each dvPortgroup
- switch the VMs on the hosts from dvPortgroup to standard portgroup
- remove 2nd nic from the dvSwitch
- "Capture" the host on the new LegacyVC1 from the old vC
- redo the previous steps but new move them to a new dvSwitch.

Two remarks:
- in our config, the vmkernel interface was on a 3th interface which already was a standard switch and we always kept connectivity. So be sure to think through what to do with your vmkernel interface.
- Be aware that moving the VMs between vCenters, will require you to also re-configure all your image level backups, since the VMs are seen as new VMs now.

 

http://www.GabesVirtualWorld.com
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dbutch1976
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

You are correct, that is exactly what I am trying to accomplish. I was afraid it wasn't going to be as simple as exporting the Dvswitches and then just connecting the hosts to LegacyVC1 and adding them back to the Dvswitches. Guess I'm going to have to put in some work.

I'll get started testing it in my lab.

On another note, how did you handle permissions when you moved the hosts to the new vCenter? Did you also script the exporting and recreating of permissions?

 

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Gabrie1
Commander
Commander

We only had a few groups for which permissions were set, so that was not much effort to do by hand. 

I do have a script though on my blog that could help you with this, but it is almost 10 years old. No guarantees:

http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/cheap-disaster-recovery/  

http://www.GabesVirtualWorld.com
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