VMware Cloud Community
iQTom
Contributor
Contributor

Upgrading vCenter from 4.0 U2 to 4.1 hangs

I downloaded the vCenter 4.1 zip yesterday but when I try to install it it gets to "Installing Directory Services....." then just stops (see screenshot). I left it for around 2 hours earlier with no progress whatsoever, no error message either and clicking on the cancel button doesn't do anything.

I ended up shutting down the server to get rid of the installer.

When I ran it first time it recognised that there was already a vCenter installation and said it would upgrade it.

The second time (after failure then reboot) it didn't recognise the existing install and gave me a few different options as if I was setting it up from scratch. I filled in all the relevant boxes but it got to the same place and is stuck.

I took a snapshot before I started any of this and have rolled back to this and tried a few different options but still end up with the same result.

I have chosen the option to upgrade the database both times would starting again with a new database be worth a shot? would that leave me with much setup/reconfiguration work afterwards?

Running a small infrastructure with just 2 hosts and a SAN running around 13 servers.

Can anyone shed any light on the situation?

Cheers

Reply
0 Kudos
9 Replies
iQTom
Contributor
Contributor

I have tried uninstalling my existing vCenter installation so I could start from scratch but I'm running into the same issue.

The uninstallation gets to "Installing Directory Services..." then doesn't do anything (see screenshot)

Reply
0 Kudos
TheFlyingCorpse
Contributor
Contributor

What is the status of ADAM on the server?

Reply
0 Kudos
iQTom
Contributor
Contributor

Who is Adam and how do I check what he's doing?

Reply
0 Kudos
RAMESA
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Can you attach log files from %temp%?

attach - status.log, jointool.log, viminst.log or just upload all files with .log extension

Regards, Ramesh
Reply
0 Kudos
frodo
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi there,

Besides giving us log files, I need you to give following info to help to narrow down the issues

1. Did you have an old vCenter installed on this machine (from the subject, it seems yes)?

2. If yes in #1, which vCenter installed (4.0 U2)? What OS and database you used for old vCenter? Were OS and database on the same machine?

3. Which DSN you used for 4.1?

Thanks and regards,

Max Li from WMware.

Reply
0 Kudos
frodo
Community Manager
Community Manager

As for ADAM, there are two places you can check. You can go to add\remove programs, it is listed there as “AD LDS Instance VMwareVCMSDS”. You can also go to service, it is listed as VMwareVCMSDS. When you uninstall vCenter, VMwareVCMSDS will be automatically uninstalled. If you can uninstall vCenter and VMwareVCMSDS is still there, this indicates your system is kind of messed up (maybe by shut down machine before the installation is finished. When you shut down machine, it was actually installing and configuring VMwareVCMSDS). But I’m a little bit puzzled, you mentioned you have snapshot and you reserved to snapshot and still got same result (did you shut down the machine before the installation finished?).

Two things I would suggest you to do:

1. Reverse back to original snapshot and try to install again to see what you got no matter how long it takes. Please don’t shut down or interrupt the installation.

2. Or if you fresh install 4.1 on your machine and already uninstalled old vCenter, but can’t uninstall ADAM, you can try to use Microsoft clean up application to uninstall ADAM and clean up the machine for you.

Please let us know if this works.

Regards,

Max Li from VMware

Reply
0 Kudos
iQTom
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the assistance but I've/VMWare managed to sort the issue.

I spoke to a tech from VMWare yesterday who had a look at the server using webex. One thing that was noticed was it was only running with 1 CPU when the minimum advised is 2. The server's been running fine with 1 CPU and has managed to function correctly up until now so I didn't think adding a CPU would make a whole lot of difference but I tried it and today it worked. It went past the 'Installing Directory Service' bit in a split second and carried on with the rest of the installation. I ran into a problem with a service being created but that was down to the user permissions, it worked fine with a different user.

The server has booted up following the upgrade and all seems well, all settings, VMs etc are in place (just got to upgrade the hosts now).

Thanks again for your help

Reply
0 Kudos
AlbertWT
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Wow surprisingly enough that the new vcenter 4.1 is now strictly only runs on 2 CPU 😮

but its good to know that we can safely upgrade inline VCenter server 4.0 into 4.1 in production during the business hours.

Kind Regards,

AWT

/* Please feel free to provide any comments or input you may have. */
Reply
0 Kudos
iQTom
Contributor
Contributor

hhmmm.... I guess I missed the 2 CPU bit, so much to read so little time etc.

But at least that makes sense of the problem. Although an error message saying "You must have 2 CPUs" would've given me a bit more of a clue.

But as far as the rest of the upgrade went here's where I'm at so far (for anyone that's interested).....

Downloaded vCenter upgrade zip (VMware-VIMSetup-all-4.1.0-259021.zip) (1.8gb)

Downloaded ESX upgrade zip (upgrade-from-ESX4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip) (575mb)

Extracted vCenter zip, ran autorun (I gave the 'log on as service' permission to the user I was running the installer as, sorted out a problem I ran into later)

First run it recognised version 4.0 but the installation failed later due to permission errors

Second run I think it had already upgraded the database so it didn't recognise the 4.0 installation and gave me the options as if it was a fresh install. Although when it came to choosing database connections I could use the existing ones and these either just worked or were upgraded as required.

I could still manage VMs using Putty or WebAccess on the ESX hosts (we only have 2 hosts so not a big issue).

Once the installation was finished I updated the Update Manager and Convertor (installation files part of the vCenter ZIP)

rebooted the vCenter server and all was well.

Then in the update manager I created a 'Host Upgrade' baseline, went to Host Upgrade Releases, 'Import Upgrade Release', browsed to the zip file and added the imported upgrade to the baseline

Then selected the host that I was going to upgrade, went to the update manager tab and staged/remediated. The host went into maintenance mode etc and was upgraded and running again in about 10 minutes.

I can't shut down the servers on the other host during office hours so I'll have to upgrade that tonight then configure/test vMotion tomorrow.

So apart from my initial problem the upgrade process was straight forward and pain free, no licensing issues, all VMs were there as expected, Data Recovery still working. All during office hours. happy days.

Reply
0 Kudos