A couple of problems after vCenter 4.1 upgrade

[imclaren]

Hi,

I upgraded to vCenter 4.1 today, following (I think) the upgrade guide. The 4.0 install was on a 32-bit platform, so I used the migration tool to do the database backup/restore, which went along without any errors.

When I logged into the new vCenter, none of my hosts/clusters/resource pools were there (it was empty). So I re-added them.

I've got 2 issues:

1) 2x ESX 3.5 hosts won't reconnect because they can no longer see a licence server. I can't change the licence type because it says the licence server is down.

2) One of my DRS hosts, an ESXi 4.0 host, won't join the HA cluster. It says there is an error in the network setup. I thought this would be a DNS issue, but it all appears to be in order.

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated!

Thanks,

Iain

[jpdicicco]

When I logged into the new vCenter, none of my hosts/clusters/resource pools were there (it was empty). So I re-added them.

This indicates that your database was not restored and loaded into your new build.

1) 2x ESX 3.5 hosts won't reconnect because they can no longer see a licence server. I can't change the licence type because it says the licence server is down.

You still need a 3.x license server for 3.x hosts. You can install just the license server from the VirtualCenter CD. Once you have this setup, you need to point your vSphere vCenter at that license server in Administration -> vCenter Server Setings... -> Licensing. At the bottom is the field for including the URL to connect.

2) One of my DRS hosts, an ESXi 4.0 host, won't join the HA cluster. It says there is an error in the network setup. I thought this would be a DNS issue, but it all appears to be in order.

Check your network settings (IP, gateway, etc.) and your switch settings for the ports the host is plugged into. Make sure your VLANs are correct. Is this host in vCenter as a standalone host, or can you not import it at all?

Happy virtualizing!

JP

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[imclaren]

Hi,

Thanks for the help. I think I'm going to try to revert back to 4.0 and try again... Something fairly fundamental seems to have gone wrong. I'm having problems with my View Manager as well.

The only error I could see was that the upgrade log reported that the names of my source and destination servers were different... Which they weren't, and I didn't get a prompt/warning during the upgrade. The only thing I hadn't done prior to the upgrade was set my FQDN in the Win2008 server.

Thanks again,

Iain

[jpdicicco]

Thanks for the help. I think I'm going to try to revert back to 4.0 and try again... Something fairly fundamental seems to have gone wrong. I'm having problems with my View Manager as well.

For View, you will need to upgrade to 4.5 to work with vCenter 4.1

Happy virtualizing!

JP

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[imclaren]

Ahhh.... I missed that. I guess I'll upgrade that first then!

Cheers,

Iain

[imclaren]

Right...I think I'm back where I started!

After rolling back to vCenter 4.0, the same host had HA problems. After bouncing it, I noticed that it didn't have vMotion enabled on its VMkernel port.

Once that was enabled, it would join the cluster ok but wouldn't participate in vMotions. I had to re-create the pools.xml file on the hose, using this KB article.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100466...

Bit of a nightmare, but no downtime caused!