vCenter Server 4.1 and Update Manger 4.1 Migration Sharing

[XavierWu]

I would like to share my vCenter Server migration case.

In my environment, I have an Win2k3 Std 32bit VM with vCenter Sever 4.0 U1 and Update Manger with embedded SQL express.

Here is what i have done to migrate to Win2k8 R2 and SQL server 2008.

Preparing and backup the old vCenter Server

1. Shut the all the VMware vCenter Services and vCenter Update manger services as this KB stated.

2. Install the SQL Management Studio Express on the OLD vCenter Server and backup the DB VIM_VCDB and VIM_UMDB (If you have Update Manger installed)

3. Extract datamigration from vCenter 4.1 iso or zip, run backup.bat in cmd on OLD vCenter Server. (Don't worry about the DB Backup, i got the error as well, so i back it manually in step 2).

4. Copy the whole datamigration folder back to NEW vCenter Server, e.g., D:\datamigration

5. Restore the backup onto the SQL server you are going to use, in

my case, SQL Server 2008 64bit. (Make sure the DB retored is in Simple Recovery Mode such that you don't need to worry about the trans log issues)

Start installing the new vCenter Server 4.1

1. I have created another VM win2k8 R2 with new hostname and new IP in my case. (In case anything goes wrong, just start up the old vCenter Server)

2. Go back to your new vCenter 4.1 OS, create a 64bit DSN from ODBC Data Souce Administrator with Name "VMware VirtualCenter" and use *SQL Native Client. You can simply test the connectivity at the end of configuration.

3. For Update Manager, you have to create the 32bit DSN which is C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe. Create an 32bit DSN with name "VMware Update Manager" and use SQL Native Client as well.

P.S. I don't care about the Update Manger Settings, hence, I have an empty DB for Update Manger, the following steps are for vCenter Server ONLY.

4. Start cmd prompt, change to D:\datamigration, run install.bat, it will prompt for the media source.

5. The installation is pretty straight forward as usual update. When prompt for the Database location, select existing DB, select the DSN you created before inside the dropdown box.

6. Make sure DO NOT choose to erase any data if you want to keep all the settings. (Otherwise, we don't need to backup and retore DB from old vCenter ^_)

7. You can choose to update the vCentere Agent automatically or manually, in my case, I chose automatically and it will update all the ESXi hosts the new vCenter IP AUTOMATICALLY, nice~

Post-Installation

1. After the vCenter Services started, tomcat6 will use up all the CPU to update the hosts vCenter agent. You can just shake leg and wait about 5-10mins, depends on the number of hosts managed under your OLD vCenter.

2. Connect to the vCenter with new client. If you are using the old client, it will prompt you to update.

3. Manually update the new vCenter server name in vSphere Client , Administration->vCenter Server Settings-> runtime settings.

Issues I have so far:

1. When I was trying to scan the ESXI 4.1 host for updates by using the Update Manager 4.1, i got this error message

"VMware vCenter Update Manager had an unknown error. Check the Tasks and Events tab and log files for details."

P.S. Scanning updates on ESXi 4.0 using Update Manager 4.1 is fine.

Solution: According to pfuller's reply, this is because of VUM can't find any udpates meta-data. Thanks.

Hopefully, VMware is going to release a fix for VUM.

2. When I was trying to add a vdisk to an VM in a ESXi 4.0 host with vSphere Client 4.1 connecting to vCenter 4.0.

I got this error messag when i was trying to specify the DataStore.

I hope It can help everyone to have a smooth and safe migration from

vCenter 4.0 on 32bit OS to vCenter 4.1 on 64bit OS.

Some details may be missing, please let me know if you need to clarify, i wil try my best to help.

I will keep my issue tracking updated. Please provide me solutions if you know.

[frpst999]

I also share your experience with the "VMware vCenter Update Manager had an unknown error. Check the Tasks and Events tab and log files for details." error message on ESX/ESXi 4.1 hosts (4.0 hosts scan without issue). If anyone has any insight on how to resolve this issue, your help would be greatly appreciated.

To expand on your installation experience, one other issue I ran into, was during the database upgrade portion of the install. I am running Windows 2008 R2 with SQL 2008 on the database side. I was getting "Exception thrown while executing SQL script." This was causing the upgrade to choke. The fix for me was to restore the vCenter database from backup, and change the database compatibility mode from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005. Apparently the compatibility mode was still at SQL 2000 from the initial migration from a SQL 2000 backend, when I was still running vCenter 3.x. Once the mode was changed to SQL 2005, the upgrade/install continued normally and successfully. A note on this- I did not find any documentation from VMware stating this as a requirement. For those who originally migrated from SQL 2000, you may want to add this to your pre-upgrade checklist.

[RParker]

The error window shows custom controls, the server itself does not have these custom controls (unless you install the client on the server).

So this means you need to uninstall the update manager agent where you are running the VI client from, and reinstall. Custom Controls are simply objects that allow programs to present GUI in an interface. So this is esoteric not systematic, and it's easily fixed.

[RParker]

and change the database compatibility mode from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005

That's your first problem. no where does it state to run SQL in a "compatible" mode when using vCenter. When you do that, it changes the behavior of the engine to run that database. So that's a mistake you made, and this won't transpire across other installs, because you did something completely illogical and unsupported.

The SQL database should ALWAYS be in native mode. If you are running a SQL 2008 database, the tables should ALL be 2008 (with respect to vCenter / Update manager), and that's where your problem is. That's why the script stopped, because it was trying to do a 2008 SQL command on a 2000 database, not happening (that is if you expect it to work).

I am surprised it was running AT ALL, let alone upgrade.

[frpst999]

RParker: First, thank you for your prompt responses.

In regards to the database compatibility issue- I do not claim to be a DBA or have a very good SQL background (obviously)- so my post was meant to be more informative for those in a similar situation to mine. I would have expected/hoped that a step during the 4.0 or 4.1 upgrade would be to check and update (or at least alert on) the DB compatibity mode- especially since the default for a restored SQL 2000 database on a SQL 2008 instance is apparently 2000 mode (I followed VMware's recommended method of migrating from SQL 2000 to SQL 2008, per the upgrade guide). I never set the compatibility mode to 2000, it defaulted as such, so I would not consider your comment about me doing something "illogical and unsupported" to be totally true. I followed the vSphere upgrade guide, which never indicated that this step was necessary. I'm not sure that you can expect non-DBA types to realize that this needed to be completed. Perhaps I'm asking too much?

At any rate, thank you for your help with the VMware Update Manager plug-ins- that was very helpful.

[pfuller]

I too am seeing the issue of:

When I was trying to scan the ESXI 4.1 host for updates by using the Update Manager 4.1, i got this error message "VMware vCenter Update Manager had an unknown error. Check the Tasks and Events tab and log files for details."

I would be nice of they came out for a fix for this; at least I am not the only one.

[pfuller]

I put in a case with VMware and since they are have release no patches, hence met-data for patches for VUM to look at you will get the error. This will continue until VMware come out with patches.

I too am seeing the issue of:

When I was trying to scan the ESXI 4.1 host for updates by using the Update Manager 4.1, i got this error message > > "VMware vCenter Update Manager had an unknown error. Check the Tasks and Events tab and log files for details."

I would be nice of they came out for a fix for this; at least I am not the only one.

[asutosh]

I think the problem of vSphere client would get solved if you install VC40 U1 or above client.

vSphere 4.0 client and vSphere 4.1 client coex have problems.(its documented too)