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mrstorey
Contributor
Contributor

Potentially corrupt VirtualCenter DB - Rebuild from scratch?

I'm a little concerned that our Virtualcenter 2.0.1 patch 2 database is slightly corrupt Smiley Sad

This is since we attempted (and succeeded!) to copy the VC database to a new DB on our SQL cluster. But after a few days of VC instability, and embarrassingly discovering that the DBAs recently upgraded to SQL 2005 SP2 which is not supported for VC 2.0.1 patch 2, we decided to point VC back at the old database which was effectively a point in time recovery of a 4 days prior.

Since then, the crashing has stopped but I've spotted a few inconsistencies, like VMs with the wrong name, different servers implicated in DRS rules etc...it's minor things on a very small number of vms which I've now sorted, but I'm no longer confident I can rely on the database!

I think that the only safe option would be to start with a new, empty database (on the SQL farm) by installing VC 2.0.2 patch 2 onto our current Virtualcenter server, and building the environment back up again by adding the all the Datacentres, Clusters and Hosts....(and resource pools, folders, permissions, DRS and HA rules......<deep breath>

Thanks, Alex.

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3 Replies
mstahl75
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

1. I would suggest installing over and just overwriting the DB. I don't see any issue there.

2. Snatching from the old host should be fine.

3. No downtime should occur due to the change (VMs or ESX)

4. I wouldn't foresee any problems but if you added the hosts back to a VC 2.0.1 server it should handle the agent versions.

5. If I had doubts about the DB I probably do the same as above. Though, I guess you could always just run normal SQL consistency checks.

mrstorey
Contributor
Contributor

2. Cool - I like the sound of snatching the hosts from one VC to the other, because I guess it'll register all the vms from each host into the new database - it'll save us loads of work.

3. Hehe - I reckon the word 'should' is perhaps the most commonly used word in IT !

4. Our upgrade plan is to leave the old database intact (its local on the VC server), and we would perform a fresh install to a SQL 2005 SP2 db on a SQL farm. Because of this, I was wondering how easy it would be to re-attach the hosts (which would at the time of backing out would have 2.0.2 agents on them), while they still exist in a 2.0.1 database. Because they still exist, I wondered if a simple re-connect would re-apply the 2.0.1 agents to the hosts again....? Or would the hosts have to be removed and added back in for a successful agent downgrade to occur? I can appreciate this is something that not many of us have done....!

Thanks for your responses

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mstahl75
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

4. In that scenario I would think you might run into some conflicts. The process of adding the ESX hosts to the VC server would handle placing the correct agents on the server. That might require manual intervention or a remove/readd to that VC server/db instance. However at that point I think you would be better off troubleshooting any issues you have on the new VC and DB rather than trying to go the route of readding to the old server. That is if you end up with any problems in the first place.